Opinion ID: 736210
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Necessity of the Presentation of Pre-Enactment Evidence

Text: 72 While we thus agree with appellants that they are entitled to a reversal of the judgment against them on their First Amendment claim, we reject their argument that they are entitled to a mandate requiring the entry of a judgment in their favor on this claim. Phillips and Vitale read Renton and our decision in Mitchell as endorsing a per se rule that any governmental regulation of speech is invalid if the adopting entity did not have before it, at the time of adoption, evidence supporting the constitutionality of the action taken. Thus, in appellants' view, a governmental entity may successfully defend a First Amendment challenge of the kind here mounted only if it can show that it was exposed, before taking action, to evidence from which one could reasonably conclude that undesirable secondary effects would occur in the absence of legislative action and that the particular action taken was narrowly tailored to ameliorate those secondary effects. We find no such rule in Renton, Mitchell, or any other governing precedent. 73 There is a significant difference between the requirement that there be a factual basis for a legislative judgment presented in court when that judgment is challenged and a requirement that such a factual basis have been submitted to the legislative body prior to the enactment of the legislative measure. We have always required the former; we have never required the latter. Whatever level of scrutiny we have applied in a given case, we have always found it acceptable for individual legislators to base their judgments on their own study of the subject matter of the legislation, their communications with constituents, and their own life experience and common sense so long as they come forward with the required showing in the courtroom once a challenge is raised. In reliance on this approach, most municipal and county councils throughout the land and some state legislatures do not hold hearings and compile legislative records before acting on proposed legislative measures. We perceive no justification in policy or doctrine for abandoning our traditional approach. Moreover, we believe that insistence on the creation of a legislative record is an unwarranted intrusion into the internal affairs of the legislative branch of governments. 74 If a legislative body can produce in court whatever justification is required of it under the applicable constitutional doctrine, we perceive little to be gained by incurring the expense, effort, and delay involved in requiring it to reenact the legislative measure after parading its evidence through its legislative chamber. A record like that presented to the town council in Renton can be easily and quickly assembled, and a requirement that this be done is unlikely to deter any municipal body bent on regulating or curbing speech. While we agree with appellants that the creation of a legislative record can have probative value on what the lawmakers had in mind when they acted, we do not understand why its absence should be controlling when the court is otherwise satisfied that the legislative measure has a content-neutral target. 75 The Supreme Court's Renton case and our Mitchell case sustained the constitutionality of the ordinances before them. Renton, 475 U.S. at 54-55, 106 S.Ct. at 932-33; Mitchell, 10 F.3d at 144. Thus, they clearly cannot stand for the proposition that a legislative record is a constitutional prerequisite to validity. 6 Moreover, in Mitchell, we expressly reserved this issue, observing that it was unnecessary ... to reach or decide whether ... a statute passed without any pre-enactment evidence of need or purpose can be valid. Id. at 136. 76 The only case we have been able to find in which an argument has been made similar to the one appellants here advance is Contractors Association v. City of Philadelphia, 6 F.3d 990 (3d Cir.1993). That case involved a constitutional challenge to an affirmative action ordinance favoring minorities, women, and disabled persons in the award of city construction contracts. The governing law required that the provisions of the ordinance that drew lines on the basis of race be subjected to strict scrutiny. Id. at 1000. Thus, the city was required to show that it had a compelling state interest and that the ordinance was the least restrictive means of serving that interest. This meant that the city had the burden of producing a strong evidentiary basis for concluding that there had been preexisting discrimination against minorities in which the city had played a role and that the ordinance was necessary to remedy the continuing effects of that discrimination. Id. at 1001-02. 77 The plaintiffs in Contractors urged this court to hold that the ordinance was unconstitutional if the City Council did not have before it at the time of the enactment of the ordinance the required evidentiary basis. We rejected that argument. While we acknowledged that the City Council did not have the required strong evidentiary basis before it at the time it acted, we held that the ordinance could be justified on the basis of evidence acquired thereafter. Id. at 1003-04. 78 If we do not insist on a legislative record when we are required to subject a legislative measure to the highest scrutiny, we would be hard-pressed to rationalize insistence on a legislative record when we are, as here, applying a lesser, more deferential standard of constitutionality.