Opinion ID: 202664
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Joint Advertising.

Text: 13 With respect to joint advertising, the Retail Stores contend that section 3-5-11(b)(1)(iii) does not prohibit agreements about prices and products but, rather, prohibits the advertisements themselves. Building on this foundation, they suggest that, at its core, the prohibition bans speech as a means of addressing underlying conduct. Appellants' Br. at 44. To support this extravagant claim, the Retail Stores point to evidence adduced at trial regarding joint advertisements that make no reference to agreed-upon prices or common products. 14 This argument lacks force. Section 3-5-11(b)(1)(iii) forbids a licensee's [p]articipation in a coordinated or common advertisement. This prohibition does not target speech; each individual liquor licensee remains at liberty to disseminate information about its prices and products to other retail stores and to the public at large. See Wine & Spirits, 418 F.3d at 47 (making a similar point with respect to W & S's provision of business advice). Seen in that light, the statute is at a far remove from the legislation at issue in 44 Liquormart, which completely banned the advertising of prices. See 517 U.S. at 516, 116 S.Ct. 1495. The statute at issue here merely proscribes conduct — the launching of advertisements resulting from pre-agreed commercial strategies. Such a ban is not a ban on commercial speech. See Wine & Spirits, 418 F.3d at 49. The fact that it is possible to design advertisements violative of the ban that do not mention specific prices or products does not prove that the statute is concerned with speech as opposed to conduct. 15 We add, moreover, that even if the joint advertising prohibition could be said to touch upon commercial speech under other circumstances, it would not implicate any protected interest possessed by the Retail Stores. Acting in concert to implement an advertising plan no more proposes a commercial transaction than does the provision of advertising services by W & S — a practice that we have found not protected under the First Amendment. See id. And, finally, the conduct in question is not so inherently expressive as to warrant First Amendment protection under the O'Brien doctrine. See Rumsfeld v. Forum for Acad. & Inst. Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47, 126 S.Ct. 1297, 1310, 164 L.Ed.2d 156 (2006) ( FAIR ); see also O'Brien, 391 U.S. at 376-77, 88 S.Ct. 1673. In these circumstances, any restriction of speech would be purely incidental to the regulation of conduct. And as the Supreme Court recently reminded us: 16 [I]t has never been deemed an abridgement of freedom of speech or press to make a course of conduct illegal merely because the conduct was in part initiated, evidenced, or carried out by means of language, either spoken, written, or printed. 17 FAIR, 126 S.Ct. at 1308 (quoting Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co., 336 U.S. 490, 502, 69 S.Ct. 684, 93 L.Ed. 834 (1949)). 18 Taking a somewhat different tack, the plaintiffs suggest that the Rhode Island statute is flawed because other commercial entities are not forbidden from advertising jointly. That suggestion attempts to invoke the precept that, even in the commercial milieu, decisions that select among speakers conveying virtually identical messages are in serious tension with the principles undergirding the First Amendment. Greater New Orleans Broad. Ass'n v. United States, 527 U.S. 173, 193-94, 119 S.Ct. 1923, 144 L.Ed.2d 161 (1999). The precept, though sound, is inapposite here. 19 The Supreme Court has emphasized the importance of context in evaluating claims that legislation abridges First Amendment rights. See Edenfield v. Fane, 507 U.S. 761, 774, 113 S.Ct. 1792, 123 L.Ed.2d 543 (1993); see also Glickman v. Wileman Bros. & Elliott, Inc., 521 U.S. 457, 469, 117 S.Ct. 2130, 138 L.Ed.2d 585 (1997). In line with that emphasis, the precept upon which the Retail Stores rely cannot be construed to divest the states of their ability to devise specific rules for businesses in different fields, that is, for businesses that are not similarly situated. See, e.g., Edenfield, 507 U.S. at 774, 113 S.Ct. 1792 (stressing the importance, in evaluating the constitutionality of commercial speech regulations, of distinctions between different professions); cf. 37712, Inc. v. Ohio Dep't of Liquor Control, 113 F.3d 614, 620-23 (6th Cir.1997) (rejecting due process and equal protection challenges because holders of different licenses were not similarly situated). This is merely a reflection of the time-honored tenet that, within wide limits, courts must defer to state legislative classifications constructed to further legitimate economic objectives. See 37712, Inc., 113 F.3d at 622. 20 So it is here. A trial court's findings of fact, made in connection with one legal theory, may often be treated as fungible in connection with another. See, e.g., Societe Des Produits Nestle v. Casa Helvetia, Inc., 982 F.2d 633, 642 (1st Cir.1992). That principle applies in this case; although the lower court addressed the classification argument in equal protection terms, its findings of fact are readily transferable to the precincts patrolled by the First Amendment. 21 The district court found as a matter of fact that the Retail Stores had failed to demonstrate that they and those other entities to which they alluded were similarly situated. This finding is not clearly erroneous (indeed, it appears to be unassailable). Consequently, we reject the plaintiffs' disparate treatment claim.