Cite as: 535 U. S. 425 (2002)
Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment
to separate will have one of two results: One business will either move elsewhere or close. The city's premise cannot be the latter. It is true that cutting adult speech in half would probably reduce secondary effects proportionately. But again, a promised proportional reduction does not suffice. Content-based taxes could achieve that, yet these are impermissible.
The premise, therefore, must be that businesses—even those that have always been under one roof—will for the most part disperse rather than shut down. True, this premise has its own conundrum. As Justice Souter writes, "[t]he city . . . claims no interest in the proliferation of adult establishments." Post, at 461. The claim, therefore, must be that this ordinance will cause two businesses to split rather than one to close, that the quantity of speech will be substantially undiminished, and that total secondary effects will be significantly reduced. This must be the rationale of a dispersal statute.
Only after identifying the proposition to be proved can we ask the second part of the question presented: is there sufficient evidence to support the proposition? As to this, we have consistently held that a city must have latitude to experiment, at least at the outset, and that very little evidence is required. See, e. g., Renton, 475 U. S., at 51-52 ("The First Amendment does not require a city, before enacting such an ordinance, to conduct new studies or produce evidence independent of that already generated by other cities, so long as whatever evidence the city relies upon is reasonably believed to be relevant to the problem that the city addresses"); Young, 427 U. S., at 71 ("[T]he city must be allowed a reasonable opportunity to experiment with solutions to admittedly serious problems"); Erie v. Pap's A. M., 529 U. S. 277, 300-301 (2000) (plurality opinion). As a general matter, courts should not be in the business of second-guessing fact-bound empirical assessments of city planners. See Renton, supra, at 51-52. The Los Angeles City Coun-
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