Opinion ID: 164351
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Discovery Network

Text: 48 As should be clear from the foregoing discussion, the telemarketers' reliance on Discovery Network is misplaced. In Discovery Network, the Supreme Court applied Central Hudson to strike down a municipal policy directly prohibiting freestanding commercial newsracks on public property. 507 U.S. at 412, 416, 113 S.Ct. 1505. It concluded that the regulation — which did not similarly restrict non-commercial newsracks — did not bear a reasonable fit to the city's interests in promoting safety and the attractive appearance of the city's public areas. Id. at 412, 417, 113 S.Ct. 1505. In particular, the Court emphasized that 1) the regulation applied to only a minute and paltry share of the total number of newsracks in the city, id. at 418, 113 S.Ct. 1505, and 2) the regulation's distinction between commercial and non-commercial speech bore no relationship whatsoever to the particular interests that the city has asserted. Id. at 424, 113 S.Ct. 1505 (emphasis in original). 49 The trifling number of newsracks regulated in Discovery Network suggested that the policy did not materially advance the city's interests, and this aspect of the regulation was not justified by evidence demonstrating that despite their small numbers the commercial newsracks disproportionately caused the problems the city sought to remedy. The Court held, in essence, that a regulation that has only a minimal impact on the identified problem cannot be saved simply because it targets only commercial speech, which occupies a lower place in our First Amendment jurisprudence. The Court concluded that the low value of commercial speech was an insufficient justification for the discrimination against respondents' use of newsracks that are no more harmful than the permitted newsracks, and have only a minimal impact on the overall number of newsracks on the city's sidewalks. Id. at 418, 113 S.Ct. 1505 (emphasis added). Under a straight-forward application of Central Hudson, the Court struck down the city's newsrack ordinance because it failed directly to advance the city's interests. 50 Both of the factors the Court emphasized in Discovery Network are absent in our case. First, while the regulation in Discovery Network applied only to a minute and paltry number of newsracks, the do-not-call registry blocks a substantial amount of unwanted telemarketing calls. See supra part III(B)(1). Second, while the distinction between commercial and non-commercial speech in Discovery Network bore no relationship whatsoever to the city's asserted interests, the do-not-call registry's commercial/non-commercial distinction was based on findings that commercial telephone solicitation was significantly more problematic than charitable or political fundraising calls. Id.; see also FTC v. Mainstream Mktg. Servs., Inc., 345 F.3d 850, 856-60 (10th Cir.2003). Additionally, the government had evidence that other alternatives (company-specific restrictions) failed in the commercial context, but had no comparable experience involving the failure of company-specific restrictions with respect to charitable or political callers. See supra part III(B)(2); 68 Fed. Reg. at 4637.