Opinion ID: 1956574
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Regulating Commercial Speech

Text: It is error to apply a least restrictive alternative analysis to determine the constitutionality of the ordinance even if it were to be read as a regulation of commercial speech. Commercial speech has only recently been accorded constitutional protection, Virginia Pharmacy Bd. v. Virginia Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748, 96 S.Ct. 1817, 48 L.Ed.2d 846 (1976), and therefore the parameters of testing the constitutionality of its regulation are not yet fully established. In no event, however, has the Supreme Court suggested that regulations of commercial speech are constitutional only if they are the least restrictive means to achieve some legitimate state end. On the contrary, the use of such a standard would be inimical to the determination that while commercial speech is protected by the first and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution, the protection afforded is a limited measure of protection, commensurate with [commercial speech's] position in the scale of First Amendment values, [allowing] modes of regulation that might be impermissible in the realm of non-commercial expression. Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Association, 436 U.S. 447, 456, 98 S.Ct. 1912, 1918, 56 L.Ed.2d 444 (1978) (upholding state sanctioning of attorney who solicited). The conflicting interests present in commercial speech situations call for a more flexible standard than that invoked by Mr. Justice MANDERINO. Commercial speech is protected at least in part because the party to whom it is addressed has a right to the information which accompanies the proposal of a commercial transaction. Virginia Pharmacy Bd. v. Virginia Consumer Council, 425 U.S. at 764-5, 96 S.Ct. at 1827. Where there are adequate and reasonable alternative sources of that information, an ordinance limiting one source will be valid where it protects a significant governmental interest, Id., 425 U.S. at 771, 96 S.Ct. at 1830, or important municipal interests. Hynes v. Mayor and Council of Borough of Oradell, 425 U.S. 610, 619, 96 S.Ct. 1755, 1760, 48 L.Ed.2d 243 (1976). Moreover, recent cases of the Supreme Court of the United States suggest that it is constitutionally permissible to regulate commercial conduct where it produces a detrimental secondary effect on the community, Young v. American Mini-Theatres, 427 U.S. 50, 96 S.Ct. 2440, 49 L.Ed.2d 310 (1976) (plurality opinion) (upholding Detroit zoning of adult movie houses). See also Id. (Powell, J., sustaining ordinance as innovative zoning). The seriously increased risk of vandalism and burglary, which results from the uninvited distribution of advertising materials, would appear sufficient to meet either test and would compel the conclusion that the ordinance is constitutional. Accordingly, order of the Commonwealth Court reversed. LARSEN, J., did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case. MANDERINO, J., filed a dissenting opinion.