456
Souter, J., dissenting
(1949); the sentiment may not provoke, but being blasted out of a sound sleep does. In such a case, we ask simply whether the regulation is "narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, and . . . leave[s] open ample alternative channels for communication of the information." Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U. S. 288, 293 (1984). A middle-tier standard is also applied to limits on expression through action that is otherwise subject to regulation for nonexpressive purposes, the best known example being the prohibition on destroying draft cards as an act of protest, United States v. O'Brien, 391 U. S. 367 (1968); here a regulation passes muster "if it furthers an important or substantial governmental interest . . . unrelated to the suppression of free expression" by a restriction "no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest," id., at 377. As mentioned already, yet another middle-tier variety is zoning restriction as a means of responding to the "secondary effects" of adult businesses, principally crime and declining property values in the neighborhood. Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U. S. 41, 49 (1986).2
Although this type of land-use restriction has even been called a variety of time, place, or manner regulation, id., at 46, equating a secondary-effects zoning regulation with a mere regulation of time, place, or manner jumps over an important difference between them. A restriction on loudspeakers has no obvious relationship to the substance of
2 Limiting such effects qualifies as a substantial governmental interest, and an ordinance has been said to survive if it is shown to serve such ends without unreasonably limiting alternatives. Renton, 475 U. S., at 50. Because Renton called its secondary-effects ordinance a mere time, place, or manner restriction and thereby glossed over the role of content in secondary-effects zoning, see infra this page and 457, I believe the soft focus of its statement of the middle-tier test should be rejected in favor of the United States v. O'Brien, 391 U. S. 367 (1968), formulation quoted above. O'Brien is a closer relative of secondary-effects zoning than mere time, place, or manner regulations, as the Court has implicitly recognized. Erie v. Pap's A. M., 529 U. S. 277, 289 (2000) (plurality opinion).
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