4.4. SR 11-13-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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113 S. Ct. 1505 (Cite as: 507 U.S. 410, *424, 113 S.Ct. 1505, *'1514) Page 10 crime and other sources "has nothing to do with" State's interest in transferring proceeds of crime from criminals to victims); Carey v. Brown, 447 U.S. 455, 465, 100 S. Ct. 2286, 2292, 65 L. Ed. 2d 263 (1980) (S~te's interest in residential privacy cannot sustain statute permitting labor picketing, but prohibiting nonlabor picketingwhen "*425 nothing in the content-based labor-nonlabor distinction has any bearing whatsoever on privacy"). [FN20] FN20. Metromedia, Inc. v. San Diego, 453 U.S. 490, 101 S.Ct. 2882, 69 L.Ed.2d 800 (1981), upon which the city heavily relies, is not to the contrary. In that case, a plurality of the Court found as a permissible restriction on commercial speech a city ordinance that, for the most part, banned outdoor "offsite" advertising billboards, but permitted "onsite" advertising signs identifying the owner of the premises and the goods sold or manufactured on the site. Id., at 494, 503, 101 S.Ct., at 2885, 2890. Unlike this case, which involves discrimination between commercial and noncommercial speech, the "offsite-onsite" distinction involved disparate treatment of two types of commercial speech. Only the onsite signs served both the commercial and public interest in guiding potential visitors to their intended destinations; moreover, the plurality concluded that a "city may believe that offsite advertising, with its periodically changing content, presents a more acute problem than does onsite advertising," id., at 511-512, I01 S.Ct., at 2894- 2895. Neither of these bases has any application to the disparate treatment of newsracks in this case. THE CHIEF JUSTICE is correct that seven Justices in the Metromedia case were of the view that San Diego could completely ban offsite commercial billboards for reasons unrelated to the content of those billboards. Post, at 1524-1525. Those seven Justices did not say, however, that San Diego could distinguish between commercial and noncommercial offsite billboards that cause the same esthetic and safety concerns. That question was not presented in Metromedia, for the regulation at issue in that case did not draw a distinction between commercial and noncommercial offsite billboards; with a few exceptions, it essentially banned all offsite billboards. The city has asserted an interest in esthetics, but respondent publishers' newsracks are no greater an eyesore than the newsracks permitted to remain on Cincinnati's sidewalks. Each newsrack, whether containing "newspapers" or "commercial handbills," is equally unattractive. While there was some *'1515 testimony in the District Court that commercial publications are distinct from noncommercial publications in their capacity to proliferate, the evidence of such was exceedingly weak, the Court of Appeals discounted it, 946 F. 2d, at 466-467, and n. 3, and Cincinnati does not reassert that particular argument in this Court. As we *426 have explained, the city's primary concern, as argued to us, is with the aggregate number of newsracks on its streets. On that score, however, all newsracks, regardless of whether they contain commercial or noncommercial publications, are equally at fault. In fact, the newspapers are arguably the greater culprit because of their superior number. Cincinnati has not asserted an interest in preventing commercial harms by regulating the information distributed by respondent publishers' newsracks, which is, of course, the typical reason why commercial speech can be subject to greater governmental regulation than noncommercial speech. See, e.g., Bolger, 463 U.S., at 81, 103 S. Ct., at 2888 (STEVENS, J., concurring in judgment) ("IT]he commercial aspects of a message may provide a justification for regulation that is not present when the communication has no commercial character"); Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Assn., 436 U.S., at 455-456, 98 S. Ct., at 1918 (commercial speech, unlike other varieties of speech, "occurs in an area traditionally subject to government regulation"). [FN21] FN21. Moreover, the principal reason for drawing a distinction between commercial and noncommercial speech has little, if any, application to a regulation of their distribution practices. As we explained in Bolger: "Advertisers should not be permitted to immunize false or misleading product information from government regulation simply by including references to public issues." Bolger, 463 U.S., at 68, 103 S.Ct., at 2881. The interest in preventing commercial harms justifies more intensive regulation of commercial speech than noncommercial speech even when they are intermingled in the same Copr. © West 2001 No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works