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

Heading: The Unconstitutional Condition Claim.

Text: 85 To the extent appellant suggests that Article 4 places an unconstitutional condition on its entertainment license, the suggestion is without merit. The doctrine of unconstitutional conditions bars government from arbitrarily conditioning the grant of a benefit on the surrender of a constitutional right, regardless of the fact that the government appropriately might have refused to grant the benefit at all. See generally Kathleen M. Sullivan, Unconstitutional Conditions, 103 Harv.L.Rev. 1413, 1415 (1989). 86 Not all conditions are prohibited, however; if a condition is germane--that is, if the condition is sufficiently related to the benefit--then it may validly be imposed. In the final analysis, the legitimacy of a government proposal depends on the degree of relatedness between the condition on a benefit and the reasons why government may withhold the benefit altogether. Id. at 1457 (footnote omitted); see also Posadas de P.R. Assoc. v. Tourism Co., 478 U.S. 328, 345-46, 106 S.Ct. 2968, 2979, 92 L.Ed.2d 266 (1986) (upholding Puerto Rico's ban on advertising casino gambling to Puerto Rico residents because the greater power to completely ban casino gambling necessarily includes the lesser power to discourage gambling through the prohibition on advertising). The more germane a condition to a benefit, the more deferential the review; nongermane conditions, in contrast, are suspect. Sullivan, supra, at 1457. 87 In this instance, Article 4 easily satisfies the requirement of germaneness. Dedham's power to license entertainment as a means of protecting public health and welfare is closely related to the core purpose of Article 4, which, as we have said, is to preserve the nighttime tranquility of the community. Thus, while the ban on licensed entertainment between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. may constitute a condition on appellant's license, it is germane and, therefore, not an unconstitutional condition. 88