Opinion ID: 77229
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiffs Open For Business

Text: On April 24, 1998, the plaintiffs applied for various business licenses and permits in Cobb County, Georgia. In submitting an application, the plaintiffs informed Cobb County that their business would be selling devices designed or marketed primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs. Although Cobb County approved the plaintiffs’ application, it later expressed concern that some of the devices sold by the plaintiffs violated Georgia’s obscenity statute. Despite expressing concern, Cobb County subsequently renewed the plaintiffs’ licenses and permits in 1999 and 2000. In early 2000, Cobb County threatened the plaintiffs with criminal prosecution and adverse administrative action for allegedly violating Georgia’s obscenity statute. On June 25, 2000, the plaintiffs stopped selling sexual devices such as vibrators and dildos. 4 A. Plaintiffs’ First Motion for a Preliminary Injunction Plaintiffs filed suit and sought preliminary injunctive relief preventing Cobb County from enforcing Georgia’s obscenity statute. Plaintiffs asserted, in part, that Georgia’s obscenity statute banned commercial speech in violation of the First Amendment. Specifically, plaintiffs asserted that O.C.G.A. § 16-12-80's complete ban on advertising violated the four-prong test in Central Husdon Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Public Serv. Comm’n, 447 U.S. 557, 566, 100 S. Ct. 2343, 2351 (1980). Courts use the four-prong test in Central Hudson to determine if commercial speech is protected by the First Amendment. Specifically, a court must determine: (1) whether the speech concerns lawful activity and is not misleading; (2) whether the regulation serves a substantial governmental interest; (3) whether the regulation directly and materially advances the state’s asserted interest; and (4) whether the regulation is no more extensive than necessary to serve that interest. In the district court, the plaintiffs stressed that Georgia’s obscenity statute permitted the sale of sexual devices to higher education faculty and students and to persons with valid prescriptions (collectively, “legal consumers”), and, thus, “the government cannot presume all advertisements about sexual devices will be misleading.” Plaintiffs further argued that the complete ban on advertising was “overbroad” in that Georgia’s obscenity statute banned all advertising, which 5 would include truthful advertising to medical practitioners and legal consumers. Finally, the plaintiffs asserted that Georgia’s complete ban on advertising could not be saved even if the defendants had the power to ban the sale of sexual devices completely.1 Essentially, the plaintiffs contended that once Georgia permitted the sale of sexual devices to certain consumers, it was required to permit the truthful, non-misleading, and targeted advertisement of sexual devices to those consumers as well as medical practitioners. In response to the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, the defendants characterized the plaintiffs’ claims as challenging the state’s ban on the advertising of sex devices. Specifically, defendants’ brief stated, as follows: “Plaintiffs contend that O.G.C.A. (sic) § 16-12-80[] impermissibly infringes upon the rights guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments under the federal constitution by prohibiting the advertisement of sexual devices. They assert that this advertisement ban constitutes an unlawful prior restraint on the constitutional right of free speech.” In their reply to plaintiffs’ argument, the defendants asserted that because a state may completely ban the sale of sexual devices outright, it does not violate the 1 In Williams v. Att’y Gen. Of Ala., 378 F.3d 1232, 1250 (11th Cir. 2004), this Court concluded that there was no “constitutional right to privacy to cover the commercial distribution of sex toys.” 6 Constitution to ban entirely the advertisement of those products. At no point did the defendants argue that § 16-12-80 could, or should, be construed to permit advertisements targeted at medical practitioners or legal consumers. After conducting a hearing, the district court addressed the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. Noting that the plaintiffs’ motion was less than clear, the district court characterized the plaintiffs’ motion as challenging “the prohibition of the advertising regarding devices that would lawfully be sold with a valid medical or psychological reason . . . .” The district court then addressed the plaintiffs’ First Amendment challenge under the four-part Central Hudson test. According to the district court, the plaintiffs’ challenge to § 16-12-80 failed the Central Hudson test for three reasons. First, the district court concluded “that it is likely that any advertising of the sexual devices in the limited instances in which it would be lawful to sell those sexual devices . . . would mislead those that were not in possession of a valid authorization.” In other words, the district court concluded that Georgia’s complete ban on advertising did not violate the First Amendment because any potential advertisement to medical practitioners or legal consumers “would inherently be misleading to the other viewers of any such advertisement not in the possession of an authorization or without a personal knowledge of the law.” 7 Second, the district court concluded that the complete ban on advertising in Georgia’s obscenity statute “directly advances the government’s interest in promoting public morality.” Third, the district court determined that the complete ban on advertising was “not more extensive than necessary.” In fact, the district court went on to conclude that it “does not envision any manner in which this substantial government interest could be furthered in a less extensive manner.” Based on these conclusions, the district court determined that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that they were likely to prevail on the merits of their First Amendment challenge to § 16-12-80, and, thus, the district court denied their motion for a preliminary injunction. Plaintiffs appealed to this Court. B. Plaintiffs’ First Appeal On appeal, the plaintiffs asserted that the district court erroneously determined that they were not entitled to a preliminary injunction on their First Amendment claim. Specifically, the plaintiffs argued that the complete ban on advertising in § 16-12-80 violated their First Amendment rights to commercial speech under Central Hudson. According to the plaintiffs, (1) no substantial government interest existed in 8 banning the advertisement of the sexual devices covered by § 16-12-80, (2) the complete ban on advertising such sexual devices did not directly and materially advance the government’s interest in protecting public morality, and (3) the complete ban on the advertisement of such sexual devices was not narrowly tailored. The defendants responded that the district court properly denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. Specifically, the defendants, in a two-page response to the plaintiffs’ First Amendment challenge, argued for the first time that Georgia’s obscenity statute did not ban all advertising. Rather, according to the defendants, “advertising of [sexual] devices directed at persons lawfully entitled to use such devices . . . is not prohibited by the Georgia statute . . . .” Thus, the defendants argued that § 16-12-80 was constitutional because § 16-12-80(e) permitted lawful, non-misleading advertising targeted at legal consumers. In its decision in the first appeal, this Court identified the four prerequisites to a preliminary injunction, as follows: the plaintiffs must demonstrate that (1) they have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, (2) they will suffer irreparable injury unless the injunction issues, (3) the threatened injury to them outweighs the damage that the injunction would have on the opposing parties, and (4) if issued, the injunction would not disserve the public interest. 9 This That I, 285 F.3d at 1321-22 (citation omitted). This Court then noted that the district court had ruled on only the first prerequisite of a preliminary injunction. Thus, our prior opinion focused on only the legal issue of whether § 16-12-80 violated the First Amendment. With regard to that legal issue, this Court addressed the plaintiffs’ claim “that O.C.G.A. § 16-12-80 forbids the advertising of sexual devices and therefore bans commercial speech in violation of the First Amendment.” This That I, 285 F.3d at 1323. We first considered “whether the speech at issue is misleading or relates to unlawful activity.” Id. According to this Court in the prior appeal, “[f]or commercial speech to fall within the protections of the First Amendment, it must concern lawful activity and not be misleading.” Id. (citing Central Hudson, 447 U.S. at 566, 100 S. Ct. at 2351). This Court “disagree[d] with the district court’s analysis of the first prong of Central Hudson,” wherein the district court had concluded that advertising sex devices to legal consumers would be misleading to non-legal consumers. Id. This Court stated that it was “not convinced that an advertisement targeting [legal] consumers necessarily would be misleading . . . [nor] that an explanation of those persons entitled to purchase the device needs to be lengthy and complex.” Id. at 1324. Essentially, this Court concluded that it was possible to craft a truthful, non- 10 misleading advertisement regarding the sexual devices targeted to legal consumers.2 As to the second and third prongs of Central Hudson, this Court assumed that Georgia had a substantial governmental interest in promoting public morality and that the complete ban on advertising advanced that interest. This That I, 285 F.3d at 1324. However, as to the fourth prong, this Court “disagree[d] with the district court’s analysis of the last prong of Central Hudson,” wherein the district court had determined that the regulation was no more extensive than necessary to serve the governmental interest. Id. This Court concluded that the complete ban on advertising in § 16-12-80 was “more extensive than necessary” and violated the First Amendment, stating we . . . conclude that the ban contained in O.C.G.A. § 16-12-80 is more extensive than necessary. Even though sexual devices clearly are lawful under certain circumstances, the statute contains a per se prohibition on advertising related to such devices. Distributors of sexual devices are forbidden unqualifiedly from advertising their products, even when the market they seek to reach consists of those consumers lawfully entitled to purchase those products. Less onerous restrictions adequately would serve Georgia’s interest, and the per se ban on advertising therefore violates the First Amendment. Id. at 1324. 2 We note that it is commonplace for advertisements about medical drugs or products to state a prescription is required in order to buy the drug or product lawfully. Thus, medical products available only by prescription are routinely advertised in ways that do not mislead the public. 11 In summary, the prior panel in this case has already decided: (1) it is possible to craft a truthful, non-misleading advertisement targeted at the legal consumers of the devices in issue; (2) § 16-12-80 contains a complete ban on advertising; (3) the complete ban on advertising is “more extensive than necessary”; (4) “[l]ess onerous restrictions adequately would serve Georgia’s interest”; and (5) “the per se ban on advertising . . . violates the First Amendment.” Id. Having determined that the complete ban on advertising in § 16-12-80 violated the First Amendment, this Court concluded that the district erred in finding that the plaintiffs had failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their First Amendment challenge. Id. Thus, this Court remanded the case to the district court and directed it “to consider on remand whether the plaintiffs have satisfied the remaining prerequisites for a preliminary injunction.” Id. Although there was a remand, this Court had already decided the purely legal question of whether § 16-12-80 violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights to commercial speech.3 3 When compared to this Court’s other decisions that reviewed a district court’s ruling regarding a preliminary injunction, the precedential force of This That I becomes obvious. See Schiavo v. Schiavo, 403 F.3d 1223, 1226 (11th Cir. 2005) (stating that “an abuse of discretion standard recognizes there is a range of choice within which we will not reverse the district court even if we might have reached a different decision”) (citations omitted); Revette v. Int’l Ass’n of Bridge, Structural & Ornamental Iron Workers, 740 F.2d 892, 893 (11th Cir. 1984) (“Although there may be merit to these contentions, they present a sufficiently close question so that the 12