Opinion ID: 195818
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Identifying the Level of Scrutiny.

Text: 24 In light of these differing analytic modalities, it is unsurprising that many First Amendment battles over the constitutionality of government regulations start with a debate about what level of scrutiny is appropriate. The instant case is no exception. Here, appellant advances two main theses in support of its exhortation that Dedham's by-law must be subjected to strict scrutiny. First, it maintains that Article 4 is content-based. Second, it maintains that Article 4 impermissibly singles out, and thus targets, Showcase's exhibition of midnight movies. Neither thesis merits a passing grade. 25 1. Relationship to Content. Appellant's flagship claim portrays Article 4 as a content-based regulation. If sustainable, this characterization would require us to employ the most exacting scrutiny in evaluating the by-law's constitutionality. See, e.g., Simon & Schuster, 502 U.S. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 508. Be that as it may, we do not think that the characterization is apt. 26 The concept of what constitutes a content-based as opposed to a content-neutral regulation has proven protean in practice. The Court's cases teach that the principal inquiry in determining content neutrality, in speech cases generally and in time, place, or manner cases in particular, is whether the government has adopted a regulation of speech because of disagreement with the message it conveys. Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 791, 109 S.Ct. 2746, 2754, 105 L.Ed.2d 661 (1989) (citation omitted). Even a regulation that does not choose sides or otherwise convey disapproval of a particular message can run afoul of this dictate because the First Amendment's hostility to content-based regulation extends ... to prohibition of public discussion of an entire topic. Consolidated Edison Co. v. Public Serv. Comm'n, 447 U.S. 530, 537, 100 S.Ct. 2326, 2333, 65 L.Ed.2d 319 (1980); accord Simon & Schuster, 502 U.S. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 509. This does not mean, however, that the sovereign must steer away from content at all costs, or else risk strict scrutiny. A regulation that serves purposes unrelated to the content of expression is deemed neutral, even if it has an incidental effect on some speakers or messages but not others. Ward, 491 U.S. at 791, 109 S.Ct. at 2754; see also City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U.S. 41, 47-48, 106 S.Ct. 925, 928-29, 89 L.Ed.2d 29 (1986). 27 The subject of our inquiry here seems at first blush to be the very model of a content-neutral regulation. Article 4, by its terms, does not demand reference to the content of the affected speech in order to determine if the ordinance applies; the only requisite reference is to an external characteristic: whether the activity is licensed under one of several particular sections of state law. Furthermore, nothing in the record suggests that Article 4 arose out of an effort to suppress some particular message communicated through Showcase's selection of motion pictures. In all events, any such forensic fizgig would be easily defused, because the midnight movies comprise exactly the same fare that appellant displays during the hours when the theater's operation is totally unaffected by Article 4. 28 Faced with so formidable a set of barriers, appellant hems and haws. In the end, it theorizes that Article 4 is content-based because, while banning licensed activity in the early morning hours, the by-law leaves untouched other forms of expression, say, unlicensed entertainment, street demonstrations, public speeches, and candlelight vigils. In appellant's view, this distinction is driven by a value judgment--the town's conscious decision to place less worth on licensed entertainment than on unlicensed entertainment--and thus constitutes irrational discrimination between the secondary effects of prohibited and permitted forms of expression based solely on the charge of an admission fee. Appellant's Brief at 26. 29 As authority for this bold proposition, appellant cites City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network, Inc., --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1505, 123 L.Ed.2d 99 (1993). We do not believe that the case can carry the cargo that appellant piles upon it. In Discovery Network, a city, motivated by interests in both safety and aesthetics, imposed a categorical ban on the distribution, via newsrack, of commercial handbills, but allowed the continued distribution of newspapers (containing primarily noncommercial speech). Id. at ---- - ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1507-09. This policy clearly favored noncommercial speech over commercial speech, and, under it, whether any particular newsrack falls within the ban is determined by the content of the publication resting inside that newsrack. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1516. On that understanding, the Court found the ban to be content-based. See id. at ---- - ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1516-17. In so holding, the Justices, though acknowledging that the city had a legitimate interest in limiting the number of newsracks, gave short shrift to Cincinnati's suggestion that the regulation was content-neutral because it was born of a desire to combat certain distasteful secondary effects associated with newsracks. The Court contrasted the case with Renton, explaining that Cincinnati had failed to identify any secondary effects attributable to respondent publishers' newsracks that distinguish them from the newsracks Cincinnati permits to remain on its sidewalks. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1517. 30 Appellant's reliance on Discovery Network is mislaid. Whether Cincinnati's regulation applied to a particular newsrack was determined by necessary reference to the subject matter of the specific publications contained therein--a telltale harbinger of content-based regulation. Dedham's regulation is not of this ilk; Article 4 applies without reference to either the content of the entertainment or the communicative impact of any speech. Unlike in Discovery Network, the applicability determination is based solely on an external, content-neutral characteristic--the existence of an admission fee. 31 To rub salt in an open wound, appellant not only misapprehends the import of Discovery Network, but also overreads the Court's opinion. The case does not stand for the sweeping proposition that any differential treatment of speakers renders a regulation content-based. Instead, the Court's holding pivots on the conclusion that, though the city's underlying purpose in enacting the ordinance was proper, the differential treatment of speakers had no relationship to that underlying purpose. 4 See id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1517. Thus, Discovery Network establishes a much narrower proposition: that, even when a municipality passes an ordinance aimed solely at the secondary effects of protected speech (rather than at speech per se ), the ordinance may nevertheless be deemed content-based if the municipality differentiates between speakers for reasons unrelated to the legitimate interests that prompted the regulation. Cf. Carey v. Brown, 447 U.S. 455, 465, 100 S.Ct. 2286, 2292, 65 L.Ed.2d 263 (1980) (sustaining challenge to statute permitting labor, but not nonlabor, picketing, because nothing in the content-based labor-nonlabor distinction ha[d] any bearing on the state's legitimate interest in privacy). 32 Here, Dedham's stated interest in enacting Article 4 is, and has been, to reduce the number of sources of potential noise and disturbance. 5 Such an objective is plainly within the office of municipal government. Accordingly, the relevant question reduces to whether Dedham has offered a neutral justification for the differential treatment that Article 4 accords to purveyors of licensed entertainment, on the one hand, and purveyors of unlicensed entertainment, on the other hand. On the facts of this case, the question requires us to ascertain whether there are any secondary effects attributable to licensed (commercial) amusements that distinguish them from the unlicensed (noncommercial) amusements that Dedham has left unregulated. See Discovery Network, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1517. 33 We answered the same question in a slightly different setting in Fantasy Book Shop, Inc. v. City of Boston, 652 F.2d 1115 (1st Cir.1981). There, several adult bookstores challenged the constitutionality of a municipal licensing ordinance (enacted pursuant to Mass.Gen.L. ch. 140, Sec. 181, a statute referenced in Dedham's amended by-law) on the ground, inter alia, that the ordinance treated commercial and noncommercial amusements differently. In response, we rejected 34 appellant's argument that the statute and the ordinance are facially underinclusive by reason of their failure to subject non-commercial amusements to the same licensing requirements. We think a legislature could reasonably conclude that non-commercial amusements present sufficiently less likelihood of the harms sought to be prevented to justify their differential treatment. 35 Fantasy Book Shop, 652 F.2d at 1121 n. 6 (offering examples). 36 In the case at bar, we think it self-evident that a legislative body might reasonably conclude that the frequency and regularity of activity inherent in an ongoing commercial venture heighten the probability of late-night disruptions and boost the number of likely participants. The profit motive itself, which encourages marketing and promotion aimed at increased consumption, is the surest indicator that, where commercial amusements operate, crowds will probably gather. Hence, the distinction drawn by Dedham between licensed and unlicensed entertainment bears a rational relationship to the specific interests cited by it in enacting Article 4. It follows inexorably that, notwithstanding the differential treatment that the by-law gives to unlicensed as opposed to licensed entertainment, it cannot successfully be condemned as content-based. 37 2. Targeting. Warbling from a different perch, appellant asseverates that Article 4 should be strictly scrutinized because it singles out, and in that sense targets, Showcase's midnight movies. This asseveration rests on the notion that strict scrutiny is always justified when a municipality enacts an ordinance that, in practical effect, regulates the First Amendment rights of a select group. We consider the notion misguided. 38 In mounting its targeting offensive, appellant relies primarily on Minneapolis Star & Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Comm'r of Revenue, 460 U.S. 575, 103 S.Ct. 1365, 75 L.Ed.2d 295 (1983). In Minneapolis Star, the Court struck down a state use tax on newsprint and ink, ruling that the tax violated the First Amendment both because it singled out the press for special treatment by taxing newspapers in a manner without parallel in the State's tax scheme, id. at 582, 103 S.Ct. at 1370, and because it impermissibly target[ed] a small group of newspapers within the press as a whole, id. at 591, 103 S.Ct. at 1375. 6 In reaching this result, the Court consigned the Minnesota statute to strict scrutiny, reasoning: 39 When the State singles out the press, ... the political constraints that prevent a legislature from passing crippling taxes of general applicability are weakened, and the threat of burdensome taxes becomes acute. That threat can operate as effectively as a censor to check critical comment by the press.... 40 Id. at 585, 103 S.Ct. at 1372. The Court added that differential treatment, unless justified by some special characteristic of the press, suggests that the goal of the regulation is not unrelated to suppression of expression, and such a goal is presumptively unconstitutional. Id. 41 Before attempting to transplant the teachings of Minneapolis Star, it is important to recall that, in a later case, the Court revisited the matter of differential taxation. See Leathers v. Medlock, 499 U.S. 439, 111 S.Ct. 1438, 113 L.Ed.2d 494 (1991). There, the Court ruled that Arkansas could extend its generally applicable sales tax to cable television and satellite services, while exempting print media, without offending the First Amendment. The Court refined the analysis it had crafted in Minneapolis Star, explaining that targeting engenders strict scrutiny only when regulations (1) single out the press, (2) take aim at a small group of speakers, or (3) discriminate on the basis of the content of protected speech. Id. at 447, 111 S.Ct. at 1143. Because the Arkansas tax measure avoided these pitfalls--for example, there was no indication that Arkansas targeted cable television in a purposeful attempt to interfere with ... First Amendment activities, id. at 448, 111 S.Ct. at 1444--the Court concluded that the statute did not warrant strict scrutiny. 42 It is incumbent upon us to inspect this case through the precedential prism of Minneapolis Star and Leathers. Reduced to bare essence, appellant's argument for strict scrutiny based on targeting necessarily rises or falls on the second of the three criteria identified by the Leathers Court. We believe it falls, for Article 4 does not target Showcase either as a speaker or as a business. 43 By its terms, Article 4's proscription on activity between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. applies to a myriad of other First Amendment speakers, such as persons who from time to time may hold licenses for concerts, dances, or plays. And, moreover, First Amendment speakers are not the only businesses prohibited from late-night operation in Dedham; there is substantial evidence in the record to support the town's contention that the disputed by-law is simply the latest in a progression of by-laws designed to ensure that commercial activities do not impinge unduly on private, residential life. 7 In this respect, Article 4 is more akin to the tax in Leathers--an impost that the Court upheld because it was an extension of a generally applicable tax, 499 U.S. at 447, 111 S.Ct. at 1443--than to the tax in Minneapolis Star--an impost that the Court struck down because it was without parallel in the State's tax scheme, 460 U.S. at 582, 103 S.Ct. at 1370. 44 To cinch matters, appellant's targeting argument also flies in the teeth of the secondary effects doctrine. Under appellant's formulation, any regulation that has an effect on fewer than all First Amendment speakers or messages could be deemed to be a form of targeting and thus subjected to strict scrutiny. Yet the Supreme Court has recognized that a municipality lawfully may enact a regulation that serves purposes unrelated to the content of expression ... even if it has an incidental effect on some speakers or messages but not others. Ward, 491 U.S. at 791, 109 S.Ct. at 2754. 45 Even appellant's most vaunted precedent does not support its targeting argument. In Minneapolis Star, the Court did not condemn all regulations that single out First Amendment speakers for differential treatment; rather, the Court acknowledged that certain forms of differential treatment may be justified by some special characteristic of the regulated speaker. 460 U.S. at 585, 103 S.Ct. at 1372. Secondary effects can comprise a special characteristic of a particular speaker or group of speakers. Accordingly, the language we have quoted from Minneapolis Star comfortably accommodates an exception to the prohibition on differential treatment for regulations aimed at secondary effects, so long as the disparity is reasonably related to a legitimate governmental interest. 8 46 In sum, appellant's targeting argument, like its argument about content quality, fails to furnish a cognizable basis for invoking strict scrutiny. We, therefore, apply an intermediate level of scrutiny in considering the constitutionality of Article 4. 47