Court Opinion

ID: 9485881
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:32:41.902778+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:25.082073
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
I disagree with the majority’s analysis of the third prong of the Central Hudson requirement.
As the majority correctly recites, the interest of the United States is to preserve state lottery policies, and that is explicitly expressed in 18 U.S.C. §§ 1304 and 1307. I think it a mistake to hold, as we do, that those statutes as applied are invalid because less than 2% of North Carolina’s total population are exposed to the broadcast of WMYK-FM. And the fact that such 2% may be exposed to the broadcasts from Virginia does not alter the fact that Congress has the undoubted right to enact the legislation which it did. The fact that the legislation does not uniformly succeed in all instances is no reason to hold it unconstitutional.
Another objection to this decision is that as a practical matter the electromagnetic waves of immense numbers of radio and television broadcasts, probably a majority of them, cross state lines, so if our decision is carried to its logical conclusion, as it will be, it will serve to completely invalidate the statutes involved.