Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 395.0

529US1

Unit: $U42

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ERIE v. PAP’S A. M.

Stevens, J., dissenting

posed by the ordinance.
Id., at 54, 71, and n. 34 (plurality
opinion). Essential to our holding, however, was the fact
that the ordinance was “nothing more than a limitation on
the place where adult ﬁlms may be exhibited” and did not
Id., at 71; see
limit the size of the market in such speech.
also id., at 61, 63, n. 18, 70, 71, n. 35. As Justice Powell
emphasized in his concurrence:

“At most the impact of the ordinance on [the First
Amendment] interests is incidental and minimal. De-
troit has silenced no message, has invoked no censorship,
and has imposed no limitation upon those who wish to
view them. The ordinance is addressed only to the
places at which this type of expression may be pre-
sented, a restriction that does not interfere with con-
tent. Nor is there any signiﬁcant overall curtailment
of adult movie presentations, or the opportunity for a
message to reach an audience.”

Id., at 78–79.

See also id., at 81, n. 4 (“[A] zoning ordinance that merely
speciﬁes where a theater may locate, and that does not re-
duce signiﬁcantly the number or accessibility of theaters pre-
senting particular ﬁlms, stiﬂes no expression”).

In Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U. S. 41 (1986),
we upheld a similar ordinance, again ﬁnding that the “sec-
ondary effects of such theaters on the surrounding commu-
nity” justiﬁed a restrictive zoning law.
Id., at 47 (emphasis
deleted). We noted, however, that “[t]he Renton ordinance,
like the one in American Mini Theatres, does not ban adult
theaters altogether,” but merely “circumscribe[s] their choice
as to location.”
Id., at 46, 48; see also id., at 54 (“In our
view, the First Amendment requires . . . that Renton refrain
from effectively denying respondents a reasonable opportu-
nity to open and operate an adult theater within the
city . . .”).
Indeed, in both Renton and American Mini The-
atres, the zoning ordinances were analyzed as mere “time,