Court Opinion

ID: 9839622
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-13 17:00:59.23938+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:53.979965
License: Public Domain

FOR PUBLICATION

   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
        FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES                   No. 22-56090
INC.; RAYMOND BROWN;
CALIFORNIA YOUTH SHOOTING                   D.C. No.
SPORTS ASSOCIATION, INC.;                2:22-cv-04663-
REDLANDS CALIFORNIA YOUTH                   CAS-JC
CLAY SHOOTING SPORTS, INC.;
CALIFORNIA RIFLE AND PISTOL
ASSOCIATION, INCORPORATED;                  OPINION
THE CRPA FOUNDATION; GUN
OWNERS OF CALIFORNIA, INC.;
SECOND AMENDMENT
FOUNDATION,

             Plaintiffs-Appellants,

 v.

ROB BONTA, in his official capacity
as Attorney General of the State of
California; DOES 1 - 10,

             Defendants-Appellees.

      Appeal from the United States District Court
          for the Central District of California
      Christina A. Snyder, District Judge, Presiding
2            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

             Argued and Submitted June 28, 2023
                    Pasadena, California

                   Filed September 13, 2023

    Before: N. Randy Smith, Kenneth K. Lee, and Lawrence
                  VanDyke, Circuit Judges.

                   Opinion by Judge Lee;
               Concurrence by Judge VanDyke

                          SUMMARY*

           First Amendment/Commercial Speech

    The panel reversed the district court’s denial of
plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to
enjoin, pursuant to the First and Fourteenth Amendments, a
California law that prohibits the advertising of any “firearm-
related product in a manner that is designed, intended, or
reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.” California
Business and Professions Code § 22949.80.
   The panel assumed that California’s law regulates only
commercial speech and that intermediate scrutiny applies.
    Applying intermediate scrutiny, the panel first concluded
that because California permits minors under supervision to
possess and use firearms for hunting and other lawful

*
 This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has
been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader.
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA             3

activities, Section 22949.80 facially regulates speech that
concerns lawful activity and is not misleading. Next, the
panel held that section 22949.80 does not directly and
materially advance California’s substantial interests in
reducing gun violence and the unlawful use of firearms by
minors. There was no evidence in the record that a minor in
California has ever unlawfully bought a gun, let alone
because of an ad. Finally, the panel held that section
22949.80 was more extensive than necessary because it
swept in truthful ads about lawful use of firearms for adults
and minors alike. Because plaintiffs had shown a likelihood
of success on the merits and the remaining preliminary
injunction factors weighed in plaintiffs’ favor, the panel
reversed the district court’s denial of the preliminary
injunction and remanded for further proceedings.
    Concurring, Judge VanDyke wrote separately to
emphasize that laws like section 2249.80, which attempt to
use the coercive power of the state to eliminate a viewpoint
from public discourse, deserve strict scrutiny. This circuit’s
precedent is ambiguous about whether viewpoint-
discriminatory laws that regulate commercial speech are
subject to strict scrutiny. In the appropriate case, this circuit
should make clear they are.
4          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

                        COUNSEL

Anna M. Barvir (argued) and Carl D. Michel, Michel &
Associates PC, Long Beach, California; Donald Kilmer,
Law Offices of Donald Kilmer, Caldwell, Idaho; for
Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Gabrielle D. Boutin (argued), Deputy Attorney General,
Office of the California Attorney General, Sacramento,
California; Kevin J. Kelley, Deputy Attorney General, Mark
R. Beckington, Supervising Deputy Attorney General;
Thomas S. Patterson, Senior Assistant Attorney General;
Rob Bonta, California Attorney General; Office of the
California Attorney General, Los Angeles, California; for
Defendants-Appellees.
Marc J. Randazza, Randazza Legal Group PLLC, Las Vegas,
Nevada; Jay M. Wolman, Randazza Legal Group PLLC,
Hartford, Connecticut; for Amicus Curiae Second
Amendment Law Center, Jews for the Preservation of
Firearm Ownership, and Citizens’ Committee for the Right
to Keep and Bear Arms.

                        OPINION

LEE, Circuit Judge:

    This case is not about whether children can buy firearms.
(They cannot under California law.) Nor is this case about
whether minors can legally use firearms. (California allows
minors under adult supervision to possess and use firearms
for hunting, target practice, and other activities.) And this
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA           5

case is not about whether California has tools to combat the
scourge of youth gun violence. (It does.)
    Rather, this case is about whether California can ban a
truthful ad about firearms used legally by adults and
minors—just because the ad “reasonably appears to be
attractive to minors.” So, for example, an ad showcasing a
safer hunting rifle with less recoil for minors would likely be
unlawful in California. Under our First Amendment
jurisprudence, states can ban truthful and lawful advertising
only if it “materially” and “directly” advances a substantial
government interest and is no more extensive than
necessary. California likely cannot meet this high bar.
    While California has a substantial interest in reducing
gun violence and unlawful use of firearms by minors, its law
does not “directly” and “materially” further either goal.
California cannot straitjacket the First Amendment by, on
the one hand, allowing minors to possess and use firearms
and then, on the other hand, banning truthful advertisements
about that lawful use of firearms. There is no evidence in
the record that a minor in California has ever unlawfully
bought a gun, let alone because of an ad. Nor has the state
produced any evidence that truthful ads about lawful uses of
guns—like an ad about hunting rifles in Junior Sports
Magazines’ Junior Shooters—encourage illegal or violent
gun use among minors. Simply put, California cannot lean
on gossamers of speculation to weave an evidence-free
narrative that its law curbing the First Amendment
“significantly” decreases unlawful gun use among minors.
The First Amendment demands more than good intentions
and wishful thinking to warrant the government’s muzzling
of speech.
6           JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

    California’s law is also more extensive than necessary,
as it sweeps in truthful ads about lawful use of firearms for
adults and minors alike. For instance, an advertisement
directed at adults featuring a camouflage skin on a firearm
might be illegal because minors may be attracted to it.
    Because Junior Sports Magazines has shown a likelihood
of success on the merits and the remaining Winter factors
favor it, we reverse the district court’s denial of preliminary
injunction and remand. Winter v. Nat. Res. Def. Council,
Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 20 (2008).
                     BACKGROUND
I. California enacts § 22949.80 to prohibit advertising
   firearm-related products “in a manner that is
   designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be
   attractive to minors.”
    California’s gun restriction laws are considered among
the strictest of any state in the nation. 2023 Everytown Gun
Law Rankings, Everytown Rsch. & Pol’y (Jan. 12, 2023),
https://everytownresearch.org/rankings. Yet firearm-related
activities, such as hunting and sport shooting, remain
popular among Californians, including minors, across a vast
swath of this state. See, e.g., License Statistics: Hunting
Licenses, Cal. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife (last visited July 24,
2023),
https://wildlife.ca.gov/Licensing/Statistics/action/review/co
ntent/6949#huntinglicenses. California allows minors—
with the consent or supervision of a parent or guardian—to
possess and use firearms for “lawful, recreational sport,
including, but not limited to, competitive shooting, or
agricultural, ranching, or hunting activity.” Cal. Penal Code
§§ 29615, 29610. In fact, California law encourages and
incentivizes lawful firearm use among minors. See, e.g.,
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA            7

Hunting Licenses and Tags, Cal. Dep’t of Fish & Wildlife,
https://wildlife.ca.gov/licensing/hunting              (offering
discounted license fees for “junior hunters,” i.e., those under
sixteen years old).
    Amid concerns about gun violence, however, the
California legislature recently became wary of youth interest
in firearms. According to the legislature, “the proliferation
of firearms to and among minors poses a threat to the health,
safety, and security of all residents of, and visitors to, [the]
state,” as “[t]hese weapons are especially dangerous in the
hands of minors.” Assemb. B. 2571, Ch. 77 § 1 (Cal. 2022).
The legislature thus sought to quell that interest. But rather
than repeal California’s firearm-possession laws for minors
(which could spark opposition from many Californians who
use firearms lawfully), the legislature chose to regulate the
“firearm industry” by limiting what it can say in the state.
The resulting law, Assembly Bill (AB) 2571, is the subject
of this appeal.
    AB 2571, as later amended by AB 160, is codified at
§ 22949.80 of the California Business and Professions Code.
The statute mandates that “[a] firearm industry member shall
not advertise, market, or arrange for placement of an
advertising or marketing communication offering or
promoting any firearm-related product in a manner that is
designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to
minors.” Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22949.80(a)(1). It thus
applies only to marketing or advertising, which it defines as
making, “in exchange for monetary compensation, . . . a
communication, about a product, the primary purpose of
which is to encourage recipients of the communication to
engage in a commercial transaction.” Id. § 22949.80(c)(6).
The law does not apply, however, to communications
“offering or promoting” firearm safety programs, shooting
8           JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

competitions, hunting activities, or membership in any
organization. Id. § 22949.80(a)(3).
    For advertisements that fall within the scope of the
regulation, § 22949.80 prescribes a totality-of-the-
circumstances test to determine whether the marketing is
“attractive to minors.”       Id. § 22949.80(a)(2).      This
assessment considers, for example, whether the
advertisement “[o]ffers brand name merchandise for
minors”; “[o]ffers firearm-related products in sizes, colors,
or designs that are specifically designed to be used by, or
appeal to, minors”; or “[u]ses images or depictions of minors
in advertising and marketing materials to depict the use of
firearm-related products.” Id. § 22949.80(a)(2)(B)–(C), (E).
   Section 22949.80 is enforced with civil penalties not
exceeding $25,000 for each violation, and injunctive relief is
available “as the court deems necessary to prevent the harm
described in this section.” Id. § 22949.80(e)(1), (4).
II. The district court denies Junior Sports Magazines
    Inc. preliminary injunctive relief against the
    enforcement of § 22949.80.
    Junior Sports Magazines Inc. publishes Junior Shooters,
a youth-oriented magazine focused on firearm-related
activities and products. According to Junior Sports
Magazines, its ability to publish Junior Shooters depends on
advertising revenue. Fearing liability under § 22949.80,
Junior Sports Magazines has ceased distributing the
magazine in California and has placed warnings on its
website deterring California minors from accessing its
content.
  Shortly after California enacted AB 2571, Junior Sports
Magazines challenged its constitutionality under the First
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA             9

and Fourteenth Amendments. Junior Sports Magazines also
moved to preliminarily enjoin the enforcement of
§ 22949.80. The district court denied the injunction,
however, determining that Junior Sports Magazines was not
likely to succeed on the merits of its claims. In particular,
the court found that § 22949.80 regulates only commercial
speech. It thus did not review the law under strict scrutiny—
as would typically apply to laws restricting speech—and
instead applied the less-stringent intermediate scrutiny
standard established by Central Hudson Gas & Electric
Corp. v. Public Service Commission of New York, 447 U.S.
557 (1980). Under this standard, the court found that
§ 22949.80 is likely constitutional, determining that the law
is no more restrictive than necessary to advance the
government’s substantial interest in reducing unlawful
firearm possession and preventing violence. Junior Sports
Magazines timely appealed the district court’s order.
                STANDARD OF REVIEW
    “A plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction must
establish that [it] is likely to succeed on the merits, that [it]
is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of
preliminary relief, that the balance of equities tips in [its]
favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest.”
Winter, 555 U.S. at 20. The most important among these
factors is the likelihood of success on the merits. California
v. Azar, 911 F.3d 558, 575 (9th Cir. 2018). This is especially
true for constitutional claims, as the remaining Winter
factors typically favor enjoining laws thought to be
unconstitutional. See Melendres v. Arpaio, 695 F.3d 990,
1002 (9th Cir. 2012); see also Index Newspapers LLC v. U.S.
Marshals Serv., 977 F.3d 817, 837–38 (9th Cir. 2020)
(order).
10            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

    We review the district court’s denial of a preliminary
injunction for an abuse of discretion. Harris v. Bd. of
Supervisors, 366 F.3d 754, 760 (9th Cir. 2004). Whether
factual findings satisfy a First Amendment legal standard,
like the Central Hudson test, however, is reviewed de novo.
See Peel v. Atty. Registration & Disciplinary Comm’n, 496
U.S. 91, 108 (1990); Prete v. Bradbury, 438 F.3d 949, 967
(9th Cir. 2006).
                            DISCUSSION
    The parties dispute whether we should review
§ 22949.80 as a restriction of purely commercial speech
under the test announced in Central Hudson or as a content-
and viewpoint-based restriction of speech under strict
scrutiny review. We need not decide this issue because “the
outcome is the same whether a special commercial speech
inquiry or a stricter form of judicial scrutiny is applied.”
Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., 564 U.S. 552, 571 (2011). We
thus assume that California’s law regulates only commercial
speech and that Central Hudson’s intermediate scrutiny
applies.1

1
  Junior Sports Magazines contends that the Supreme Court in Sorrell
suggested that even commercial speech restrictions “must be tested by
heightened judicial scrutiny” if they are content or viewpoint
discriminatory. Sorrell, 564 U.S. at 563, 566. But California responds
that our court has read Sorrell narrowly, holding that intermediate
scrutiny still applies for at least content-based restrictions on commercial
speech. See Retail Digital Network, LLC v. Prieto, 861 F.3d 839, 847
(9th Cir. 2017) (en banc). But see Int’l Outdoor, Inc. v. City of Troy, 974
F.3d 690, 703, 705, 707–08 (6th Cir. 2020) (“[T]he intermediate-scrutiny
standard applicable to commercial speech . . . applies only to a speech
regulation that is content-neutral on its face.”). We, however, do not
need to answer this question to decide this case.
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA          11

    And even assuming that intermediate scrutiny applies,
California’s advertising restriction likely imposes an
unconstitutional burden on protected speech. The state has
made no showing that broadly prohibiting certain truthful
firearm-related advertising is sufficiently tailored to
significantly advance the state’s goals of preventing gun
violence and unlawful firearm possession among minors.
Because California fails to satisfy its burden to justify the
proposed speech restriction, Junior Sports Magazines is
likely to prevail on the merits of its First Amendment claim.
I. Junior Sports Magazine is likely to succeed on the
   merits of its First Amendment claim.
    When a statute restricts only commercial speech, Central
Hudson provides a multipart test to assess whether the law
is constitutional. Under this framework, we first ask whether
the regulated speech is misleading or concerns unlawful
activity. See Central Hudson, 447 U.S. at 563–64. Such
speech receives no First Amendment protection. See id. If
the regulated speech “is neither misleading nor related to
unlawful activity, the government’s power is more
circumscribed.” Id. at 564. It thus becomes the state’s
burden to show that the statute directly and materially
advances a substantial governmental interest and that “it is
not more extensive than is necessary to further that interest.”
Id. at 566; see also Edenfield v. Fane, 507 U.S. 761, 767
(1993); Sorrell, 564 U.S. at 572.
    We hold that California has failed to justify its
infringement on protected speech under the Supreme Court’s
Central Hudson framework.
 A. Section 22949.80 regulates speech that is not
    misleading and that concerns lawful activity.
12          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

   The state contends that § 22949.80 regulates misleading
speech about unlawful activity because California law
prohibits firearm sales to minors and restricts firearm
possession by minors.
    But California’s argument founders on the fact that it
permits minors under adult supervision to possess and use
firearms for hunting, shooting competitions, and other
lawful activities. Cal. Penal Code §§ 29615, 29610. So
California’s prohibition on advertisements that “reasonably
appear[] to be attractive to minors” would include messages
about legal use of guns by minors. For example, many
Californians hunt with their children, but it would likely be
unlawful for a firearm industry member to show that lawful
activity in its advertisements—not because it is misleading
or involves illegal acts but because it “[u]ses images or
depictions of minors . . . to depict the use of firearm-related
products.” Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22949.80(a)(2)(E).
    In addition, § 22949.80 does not apply only to speech
soliciting minors to purchase or use firearms unlawfully.
Instead, it applies to any advertisements “offering or
promoting any firearm-related product in a manner that is
designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to
minors.”     Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22949.80(a)(1)
(emphasis added).       Because of this broad wording,
§ 22949.80 facially encompasses speech directed at adults—
who can lawfully purchase firearms—whenever that speech
might also reach minors. That alone refutes the state’s
argument that the law inherently concerns unlawful activity.
See Educ. Media Co. at Va. Tech v. Swecker, 602 F.3d 583,
589 (4th Cir. 2010) (“[A]dvertisements for age-restricted—
but otherwise lawful—products concern lawful activity
where the audience comprises both underage and of-age
members.”); Centro de la Comunidad Hispana de Locust
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA          13

Valley v. Town of Oyster Bay, 868 F.3d 104, 113–14 (2d Cir.
2017) (holding that “commercial speech is not categorically
removed from” Central Hudson’s test unless “all
manifestations of the restricted speech” are misleading or
relate to unlawful activity”).
    We thus hold that § 22949.80 facially regulates speech
whose content concerns lawful activities and is not
misleading. We now address whether the state has met its
burden to show that the law directly and materially advances
a substantial governmental interest and is no more extensive
than necessary. We conclude that it has not.
 B. Section 22949.80 does not directly and materially
    advance California’s substantial interests.
    California articulates two interests for its speech
restriction: (1) preventing unlawful possession of firearms
by minors and (2) protecting its citizens from gun violence
and intimidation. We recognize that these interests are
substantial. See City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books, Inc.,
535 U.S. 425, 435 (2002) (plurality opinion); Nordyke v.
Santa Clara County, 110 F.3d 707, 713 (9th Cir. 1997).
    But simply having a substantial interest does not validate
the state’s advertising prohibition. Under Central Hudson,
a state seeking to justify a restriction on commercial speech
bears the burden to prove that its law directly advances that
interest to a material degree. 447 U.S. at 564; Edenfield, 507
U.S. at 770. To satisfy its burden, California must provide
evidence establishing “that the harms it recites are real,”
Edenfield, 507 U.S. at 770–71, and that its speech restriction
will “significantly” alleviate those harms, 44 Liquormart,
Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U.S. 484, 505–06 (1996) (plurality
opinion). This burden is at its highest where, as here, a state
“takes aim at accurate commercial information,” 44
14          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 503, 507 (plurality opinion), in an
express effort to regulate “a popular but disfavored product,”
Sorrell, 564 U.S. at 577–79.
    California’s defense of § 22949.80 falls well short of this
requirement. The state insists that the law will advance its
substantial interests by dampening demand for firearms
among minors. Yet every argument that it makes to bolster
this theory lacks supporting evidence.
    To start with the obvious, a state may not restrict
protected speech to prevent something that does not appear
to occur. See Edenfield, 507 U.S. at 770–71. Yet here—
despite enacting a bill whose statement of purpose asserts
that “[f]irearms marketing contributes to the unlawful sale of
firearms to minors”—the state admitted at oral argument that
it is unaware of a single instance in which a minor
unlawfully bought a firearm in California (presumably
because a minor would not pass background check and other
requirements). Assemb. B. 2571, Ch. 77 § 1 (Cal. 2022); cf.
Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly, 533 U.S. 525, 557–61
(2001) (citing multiple studies connecting tobacco-industry
advertising to underage tobacco use). And if the state cannot
cite a single case of a minor in California unlawfully buying
a gun, then an advertisement about firearms logically could
not have contributed to such a sale.
    Changing tack, the state contends that because firearm
advertising generally creates demand for firearm-related
products, it also increases the overall likelihood that minors
will illegally possess and use those products—not just
purchase them. The state reasons that by restricting firearm-
related advertising, § 22949.80 will materially prevent
unlawful firearm possession and limit gun violence. Rather
than support this argument with any evidence, California
           JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA         15

maintains that “common sense”—which, in reality, is just
speculation here—provides all the justification it needs. But
the First Amendment requires more than fact-free inferences
to justify governmental infringement on speech.
    There are certainly cases in which “history, consensus,
and ‘simple common sense”’ are enough to justify a law
restricting speech. Fla. Bar v. Went For It, Inc., 515 U.S.
618, 628 (1995) (quoting Burson v. Freeman, 504 U.S. 191,
211 (1992)). But a state can invoke “common sense” only if
the connection between the law restricting speech and the
government goal is so direct and obvious that offering
evidence would seem almost gratuitous. But as the
government’s justifications for a regulation become more
attenuated, bare appeals to common sense quickly veer into
impermissible speculation. In such cases, the state needs to
provide evidence to substantiate that its law will
meaningfully further its stated objectives.
    The Supreme Court’s decision in 44 Liquormart, Inc. v.
Rhode Island, is instructive. Rhode Island had banned
advertising alcohol prices, arguing that the law would
decrease price competition and ultimately lead to less
alcohol consumption. 44 Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 489, 504–
05. Writing for a plurality of the Court, Justice Stevens
conceded that common sense could suggest that a ban on
pricing advertisements would tend to lead to less price
competition, causing higher market prices. Id. at 505. He
further assumed that demand for alcohol is “somewhat
lower” when prices are higher. Id. But the Court concluded
that the state had to do more than appeal to common sense
and a chain of inferences to prove that the law would
“significantly advance the State’s interest in promoting
temperance”: it had to provide “evidentiary support.” Id.
(emphasis added); see also id. at 523 (Thomas, J.,
16            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

concurring) (disagreeing with the plurality’s approach as too
permissive); Greater New Orleans Broad. Ass’n v. United
States, 527 U.S. 173, 188–89 (1999) (noting that even if
“advertising concerning casino gambling increases demand
for such gambling, which in turn increases the amount of
casino gambling that produces those social costs . . . . it does
not necessarily follow that the Government’s speech ban has
directly and materially furthered the asserted interest”).
    California’s argument suffers from a similar flaw. To be
sure, we agree that advertising can theoretically stimulate
demand. See Coyote Pub., Inc. v. Miller, 598 F.3d 592, 608
(9th Cir. 2010).2 But that is not enough here for the simple
reason that firearm use by minors is not per se unlawful. As
explained earlier, California allows minors to possess and
use guns with adult supervision for hunting, shooting
competitions, target practice, and other lawful activities.
California even encourages demand for gun use by minors
by giving permit discounts for young hunters. See Greater
New Orleans Broad, 527 U.S. at 189 (“[A]ny measure of the
effectiveness of the Government’s attempt to minimize the
social costs of gambling cannot ignore Congress’
simultaneous encouragement of tribal casino gambling.”).

2
  California argues that this truism is enough to meet its burden, citing
cases involving limitations on tobacco and alcohol advertisements. See,
e.g., Disc. Tobacco City & Lottery, Inc. v. United States, 674 F.3d 509,
539–41 (6th Cir. 2012) (underage smoking); Swecker, 602 F.3d at 589–
90 (underage drinking). But minors cannot legally consume tobacco or
alcohol, so ads touting those products to minors would be per se
unlawful. In contrast, minors are allowed to use firearms with adult
supervision in California for certain activities. Moreover, that
advertising contributes to underage substance use is an empirically
supported consensus opinion. See Lorillard Tobacco Co., 533 U.S. at
557–61 (citing studies); Disc. Tobacco, 674 F.3d at 541.
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA           17

    Given that minors can use guns in California, dampened
demand for firearms among minors cannot by itself be a
substantial government interest. Rather, decreasing demand
for firearms can only be a means to an end for California.
Ultimately, the state hopes that § 22949.80’s restrictions on
truthful advertising will decrease demand for guns, which in
turn will “significantly reduce” either unlawful firearm
possession by minors or gun violence. See 44 Liquormart,
517 U.S. at 505 (plurality opinion).
    But by relying on a chain of inferences, California cannot
merely gesture to “common sense” to meet its burden of
showing that the law will “significantly” advance its goals.
If anything, “common sense” suggests the contrary: minors
who unlawfully use guns for violence likely are not doing so
because of, say, an advertisement about hunting rifles in
Junior Shooters magazine. The state has provided no
evidence—or even an anecdote—that minors are unlawfully
using firearms because of advertisements for guns by the
firearm industry. With no evidence connecting truthful and
lawful firearm advertising to unlawful firearm possession or
gun violence, California has not shown that § 22949.80
directly advances its interests to a material degree. See id. at
505–07; Greater New Orleans Broad., 527 U.S. at 189. And
even if California could provide some evidence, it would
have to show that its law restricting speech would
“significantly” advance the state’s goals. 44 Liquormart,
517 U.S at 505 (plurality opinion).
    In the end, California spins a web of speculation—not
facts or evidence—to claim that its restriction on speech will
significantly curb unlawful firearm use and gun violence
among minors. The First Amendment cannot be so easily
trampled through inferences and innuendo. We thus
conclude that California has not justified its intrusion on
18          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

protected speech. To hold otherwise “would require us to
engage in the sort of ‘speculation or conjecture’ that is an
unacceptable means of demonstrating that a restriction on
commercial speech directly advances the State’s asserted
interest.” 44 Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 505–07 (plurality
opinion) (quoting Edenfield, 507 U.S. at 770).
  C. Section 22949.80 is more extensive than necessary.
    Even if California’s advertising restriction significantly
slashes gun violence and unlawful use of firearms among
minors, the law imposes an excessive burden on protected
speech. Central Hudson requires the government to show “a
reasonable fit between the means and ends of the regulatory
scheme,” Lorillard Tobacco Co., 533 U.S. at 561, such that
the “suppression of speech ordinarily protected by the First
Amendment is no more extensive than necessary to further
the State’s interest,” Central Hudson, 447 U.S. at 569–70.
So “if the Government could achieve its interests in a manner
that does not restrict speech, or that restricts less speech, the
Government must do so.” Thompson v. W. States Med. Ctr.,
535 U.S. 357, 371 (2002); see also Central Hudson, 447 U.S.
at 566 n.9 (“We review with special care regulations that
entirely suppress commercial speech in order to pursue a
nonspeech-related policy. In those circumstances, a ban on
speech could screen from public view the underlying
governmental policy.”); Sorrell, 564 U.S. at 575 (citing 44
Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 503 (plurality opinion)).
    We emphasize again that § 22949.80 is not limited to
speech encouraging minors to illegally buy firearms. Nor is
it circumscribed to reach only speech depicting unlawful
possession of firearms. It also is not narrowly focused on
speech encouraging minors to engage in unlawful uses of
firearms. See Sorrell, 564 U.S. at 573. And it does not target
           JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA        19

advertisements in contexts geared exclusively to minors.
See, e.g., Swecker, 602 F.3d at 590–91 (affirming the
constitutionality of an alcohol advertising restriction that
applied only to “campus publications targeted at students
under twenty-one”). Instead, it applies to any firearm-
product advertisement—no matter the audience—so long as
it “reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.”
    Under the plain—and sweeping—language of the
statute, a company potentially could not market a
camouflage-colored gun for adults because it could
“reasonably appear[] to be attractive to minors.”
§ 22949.80(a)(1). And bizarrely, California’s law would
likely ban advertisements promoting safer guns for minors—
for example, a hunting rifle designed for young hunters that
has less recoil or that comes with a more secure trigger
safety—if they are directed at minors and their parents. Id.
    In view of its apparent lack of any limiting principles,
§ 22949.80 effectively constitutes a blanket restriction on
firearm-product advertising. A speech restriction of that
scope is not constitutionally sound under any standard of
review. See Lorillard Tobacco Co., 533 U.S. at 561–65
(determining that a regulation “prohibit[ing] any smokeless
tobacco or cigar advertising within 1,000 feet of schools or
playgrounds” was too broad because “[i]n some
geographical areas, [it] would constitute nearly a complete
ban on the communication of truthful information about
smokeless tobacco and cigars to adult consumers”); Valle
Del Sol, 709 F.3d at 826.
20           JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

    Because the state cannot justify its broad advertising
restriction, we conclude that Junior Sports Magazines is
likely to prevail on the merits of its First Amendment claim.3
II. Because Junior Sports Magazines is likely to succeed
    on the merits, the remaining Winter factors weigh in
    its favor.
     After demonstrating a likelihood of success on the merits
of its claim, a party seeking a preliminary injunction must
establish that it is “likely to suffer irreparable harm in the
absence of preliminary relief, that the balance of equities tips
in [its] favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest.”
Winter, 555 U.S. at 20. “When the government is a party,
the last two factors merge.” Azar, 911 F.3d at 575; see also
Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 435 (2009).
    But when a party has established likelihood of success
on the merits of a constitutional claim—particularly one
involving a fundamental right—the remaining Winter
factors favor enjoining the likely unconstitutional law. See
Melendres, 695 F.3d at 1002 (“It is well established that the
deprivation of constitutional rights ‘unquestionably
constitutes irreparable injury.’” (quoting Elrod v. Burns, 427
U.S. 347, 373 (1976))); Index Newspapers, 977 F.3d at 838
(recognizing “the significant public interest in upholding
First Amendment principles” (quoting Associated Press v.
Otter, 682 F.3d 821, 826 (9th Cir. 2012))). It is no different
here.
                         CONCLUSION

3
 Given this holding, we need not address its constitutional association
and equal protection claims.
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA          21

    California has many tools to address unlawful firearm
use and violence among the state’s youth. But it cannot ban
truthful ads about lawful firearm use among adults and
minors unless it can show that such an intrusion into the First
Amendment will significantly further the state’s interest in
curtailing unlawful and violent use of firearms by minors.
But given that California allows minor to use firearms under
adult supervision for hunting, shooting, and other lawful
activities, California’s law does not significantly advance its
purported goals and is more extensive than necessary. In
sum, we hold that § 22949.80 is likely unconstitutional
under the First Amendment, and we thus REVERSE the
district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction and
REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this
opinion.

VANDYKE, Circuit Judge, concurring,

    California wants to legislate views about firearms. The
record for recently enacted California Assembly Bill 2751
(AB 2751) indicates a legislative concern that marketing
firearms to minors would “seek[] to attract future legal gun
owners,” and that that’s a negative thing. No doubt at least
some of California’s citizens share that view. They may
dream that someday everyone will be repulsed by the
thought of using a firearm for lawful purposes such as
hunting and recreation. But just as surely some of
California’s citizens disagree with that view. Many hope
their sons and daughters will learn to responsibly use
firearms for lawful purposes. Firearms are controversial
products, and don’t cease to be so when used by minors. But
as the majority opinion explains well, there are a variety of
22          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

ways a minor can lawfully use firearms in California. And
the State of California may not attempt to reduce the demand
for lawful conduct by suppressing speech favoring that
conduct while permitting speech in opposition. That is
textbook viewpoint discrimination.
    That is precisely what California did in Assembly Bill
2751. Under this law, those who want to discourage minors
from lawfully using firearms (such as for hunting or shooting
competitions) are free to communicate their messages.
Certain speakers (“firearm industry members”) who want to
promote the sale of firearms to minors, however, are
silenced. I agree with the majority opinion that, even
assuming intermediate scrutiny applies, California’s nascent
speech code cannot withstand it. I write separately to
emphasize that laws like AB 2751, which attempt to use the
coercive power of the state to eliminate a viewpoint from
public discourse, deserve strict scrutiny. Our circuit’s
precedent is ambiguous about whether viewpoint-
discriminatory laws that regulate commercial speech are
subject to strict scrutiny. In the appropriate case, we should
make clear they are.
 I. The California Legislature and Governor Targeted
    Speech that Encourages Lawful Conduct They
    Dislike.
    In June 2022, California enacted Assembly Bill 2751.
AB 2751 restricts speech on the basis of viewpoint. “If a law
is facially neutral, we will not look beyond its text to
investigate a possible viewpoint-discriminatory motive.”
Interpipe Contracting, Inc. v. Becerra, 898 F.3d 879, 899
(9th Cir. 2018). But AB 2751 is not “facially neutral”
between viewpoints on the topic of minors using firearms.
Id. It prohibits advertisements about the use of firearms by
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA           23

minors that make a “firearm-related product … appear[] to
be attractive to minors,” while allowing those that don’t.
Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22949.80(a)(1). More specifically,
the law prohibits “firearm industry members” from
“advertis[ing], market[ing], or arrang[ing] for placement of
an advertising or marketing communication offering or
promoting any firearm-related product in a manner that is
designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to
minors.” Id. Because the law discriminates on its face, “we
may peel back the legislative text and consider legislative
history and other extrinsic evidence to probe the legislature’s
true intent.” Interpipe Contracting, Inc., 898 F.3d at 899.
    When the text is peeled back, the legislative record
indicates an intention that the law will stop the message that
minors should lawfully use firearms, and a hope that the law
will prevent minors from eventually becoming adults who
have a favorable view of gun ownership and use. The very
beginning of the legislative analysis of the bill identifies the
messages that California attempted to stop in passing AB
2571: messages that “entice children to be interested in
possessing and using firearms.” One of the legislators who
authored AB 2751 lamented in the press release announcing
the bill that “[g]un manufacturers view children as their next
generation of advocates.” Revealing even more animus, the
bill’s author characterized firearms designed for minors as
“disturbing products.”
    The record also indicates that California viewed stopping
youth from possessing firearms as itself a compelling
interest, independent of California’s concern with gun
violence or misuse of firearms. AB 2751 itself includes a
finding that California, independent of any concern for gun
violence, “has a compelling interest in ensuring that minors
do not possess these dangerous weapons.” The analysis
24          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

prepared for the Assembly Committee on Judiciary
explicitly separated California’s interest in “protecting its
citizens” from its “compelling interest in ensuring that
minors do not possess these dangerous weapons.”
    Elsewhere in the legislative record, it is indicated that the
bill “[was] prompted by the incidence of marketing and
advertising of firearm-related products to children,”
advertising that “arguably [sought] to attract future legal gun
owners.” California is concerned with the prospect of
children growing up to become “legal” gun owners. One
ostensibly concerning example of marketing was a gun
manufacturer marketing a firearm as being “the first in a line
of shooting platforms that will safely help adults introduce
children to the shooting sports.” (Emphasis added.). The
same analysis quotes a news article stating that some
members of the gun industry “see kids as a vital group of
future gun buyers who need to be brought into the fold at a
young age.”
    The bill’s author warns: “Gun manufacturers view
children as their next generation of advocates and
customers.” Thus, the State must take “away” the “tool” of
advertisement “from the gun industry.” The author’s animus
toward positive messages about firearm usage is underlined
by the legislative record’s reference to a report criticizing the
firearm industry’s purported attempt to cultivate interest in
firearms from minors.
    The governor of California, who sponsored the bill,
shared the legislature’s open animus against the messages
targeted by AB 2751. The announcement that Governor
Newsom signed the bill stated that the “legislation
… directly targets the gun lobby and [firearm]
manufacturers.” After signing the law, Governor Newsom
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA          25

took to Twitter and described the messages prohibited by the
bill as “sick marketing ploys” and stated that the bill “goes
into effect immediately because decent human beings,
people with common sense, know that we should not be
allowing [these messages].”
    The executive branch and the bill’s proponents in the
legislature did not work in vain to extinguish a viewpoint
from the public discussion on firearms. AB 2751 effectively
removes one viewpoint from the public conversation over
the proper role of firearms in our society, while leaving the
opposite viewpoint free to participate. Under AB 2751,
those opposed to minors using firearms for competitions,
hunting, and other lawful uses may advocate against such
usage. Those who “advocat[e] for the purchase, use, or
ownership of firearm-related products,” however, may not
promote firearm-related products to minors, even though the
minors can use these products for lawful activities. See, e.g.,
Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22949.80(a)(1), (c)(4)(B).
    Take, for example, a picture depicting a father and son
hunting. Without worrying about violating any California
law, that picture could be placed in a magazine with the
tagline, “Unsafe! Kids Should Shoot Baskets, Not Birds.”
AB 2751 would, however, prohibit a gun manufacturer from
placing an advertisement using that very same picture with
the tagline, “Our New Rifle Shoots with Precision and
Minimal Recoil—Great for Training Young Shooters to
Shoot Safely!” AB 2751 would suppress the latter while
permitting the former.       “This is blatant viewpoint
discrimination.” Good News Club v. Milford Cent. Sch., 533
U.S. 98, 124 (2001) (Scalia, J., concurring); see also Iancu
v. Brunetti, 139 S. Ct. 2294, 2299 (2019) (noting that the
“essence of viewpoint discrimination” is when a law
26          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

“reflects the Government’s disapproval of a subset of
messages it finds offensive” (citation omitted)).
     California has thus singled out a particular message it
does not like and prohibited its proliferation. Its intent to
stamp out this speech is evident from the record. And it
crafted a targeted legislative scheme to get the job done.
This kind of effort to stamp out disliked viewpoints deserves
the strictest of scrutiny. “A legislature cannot privilege one
set of speakers as the good guys, while restraining another
set of speakers as the baddies.” Ass’n of Nat. Advertisers,
Inc. v. Lungren, 44 F.3d 726, 739 (9th Cir. 1994) (Noonan,
J., dissenting).
 II. California’s Undisguised Viewpoint-Discrimination
     Should Be Subjected to Strict Scrutiny.
    The First Amendment, almost universally, “forbids”
laws that restrict speech on the basis of viewpoint. Members
of City Council v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 804
(1984). The Supreme Court has carved out one exemption
allowing the government to discriminate between
viewpoints: when the government is itself speaking. See,
e.g., Legal Servs. Corp. v. Velazquez, 531 U.S. 533, 541
(2001). The Court has not been so explicit about carving out
any restriction from the First Amendment’s blanket
disapprobation of viewpoint discrimination for when the
speech is commercial. Given the strong default rule that
viewpoint-discriminatory laws are simply impermissible
under the First Amendment, and the lack of an express
carveout for commercial speech restrictions, there is no good
reason a law like AB 2751 should be subjected to anything
less than strict scrutiny. Admittedly, our own circuit’s
precedent leaves room to argue for a lower level of scrutiny.
But as explained below, our precedent doesn’t compel a
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA            27

lower level of scrutiny either. And it would be good for us
to clarify in the right case that commercial speech isn’t an
exception to the almost-universal rule that governmental
attempts to police viewpoints are subjected to the highest
form of judicial skepticism.
    Start with first principles. Government action that
regulates speech on the basis of that speech’s content is
inherently suspect and “presumptively unconstitutional”
under the First Amendment. Reed v. Town of Gilbert, 576
U.S. 155, 163 (2015). A content-based restriction regulates
the “public discussion of an entire topic.” Id. at 156 (citation
omitted). If California had, for example, prohibited any
advertisements related to the use of firearms by minors, then
arguably it would have been engaging “only” in content-
based discrimination.
    But courts have always viewed attempts to regulate
viewpoints with even greater suspicion than regulating
content. Viewpoint discrimination is a type of content
discrimination, but a “more blatant” type, Rosenberger v.
Rector & Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 829 (1995),
which is why the Supreme Court has described the First
Amendment as almost universally “forbid[ding] the
government [from] regulat[ing] speech in ways that favor
some viewpoints or ideas at the expense of others,” Members
of City Council, 466 U.S. at 804. Viewpoint discrimination
falls only a little short of being per se invalid under the First
Amendment. See Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U.S.
460, 469 (2009) (noting that content-based restrictions
28             JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

“must satisfy strict scrutiny,” but “restrictions based on
viewpoint are prohibited”).1
    Indeed, the reason for this “pocket of absolutism” in the
Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence, where it almost
never permits viewpoint-discriminatory speech restrictions,
is not hard to comprehend.2 “The First Amendment creates
an open marketplace in which differing ideas about political,
economic, and social issues can compete freely for public
acceptance without improper government interference.”
Knox v. Serv. Emps. Int’l Union, Loc. 1000, 567 U.S. 298,
309 (2012) (cleaned up). When the government attempts to
stamp out the presentation of one viewpoint, no matter how
much the government may dislike it, it short-circuits the
public’s ability to reason together. “The best test of truth is
the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the
competition of the market, and the people lose when the
government is the one deciding which ideas should prevail.”
Nat’l Inst. of Fam. & Life Advocs. v. Becerra, 138 S. Ct.
2361, 2375 (2018) (cleaned up).

1
 The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized the First Amendment’s
near-absolute prohibition on laws that restrict speech based on the
viewpoint of the speaker. See Fowler v. Rhode Island, 345 U.S. 67, 69–
70 (1953) (citing Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U.S. 268, 273–73 (1951));
Police Dep’t of City of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 96 (1972);
Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205, 209 (1975); First Nat’l
Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765, 785–86 (1978); Perry Educ.
Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators’ Ass’n, 460 U.S. 37, 48–49 (1983);
Members of City Council, 466 U.S. at 804; Cornelius v. NAACP Legal
Def. & Educ. Fund, Inc., 473 U.S. 788, 806 (1985); Lamb’s Chapel v.
Ctr. Moriches Union Free Sch. Dist., 508 U.S. 384, 394 (1993);
Rosenberger, 515 U.S. at 828–29; Iancu, 139 S. Ct. at 2299.
2
    Rodney A. Smolla, Smolla & Nimmer on Freedom of Speech § 4:8.
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA          29

    Putting first principles to the side, the Supreme Court has
also stated that “the Constitution … accords a lesser
protection to commercial speech than to other
constitutionally guaranteed expression.” Cent. Hudson Gas
& Elec. Corp. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n of New York, 447 U.S.
557, 563 (1980). California argues that this means that AB
2751 need withstand only Central Hudson’s intermediate
scrutiny. But as multiple circuits have indicated, even
though content-based speech restrictions on commercial
speech must only survive intermediate scrutiny, there is
good reason to conclude that a law restricting commercial
speech on the basis of viewpoint merits strict scrutiny. See
Greater Phila. Chamber of Com. v. City of Philadelphia, 949
F.3d 116, 139 (3d Cir. 2020) (“We realize, of course, that it
may be appropriate to apply strict scrutiny to a restriction on
commercial speech that is viewpoint-based.”); Dana’s R.R.
Supply v. Att’y Gen., Fla., 807 F.3d 1235, 1248 (11th Cir.
2015) (“[M]erely wrapping a law in the cloak of
‘commercial speech’ does not immunize it from the highest
form of scrutiny due government attempts to discriminate on
the basis of viewpoint.”); cf. Int’l Outdoor, Inc. v. City of
Troy, 974 F.3d 690, 708 (6th Cir. 2020) (applying strict
scrutiny to a restriction of commercial speech based on
content).
     The Supreme Court has never invoked Central Hudson
to apply intermediate scrutiny to a law that discriminates
between viewpoints, even in the commercial context. Cf.
R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 434 (1992) (Stevens,
J., concurring in the judgment) (noting that “in upholding
subject-matter regulations we have carefully noted that
viewpoint-based discrimination was not implicated”). The
closest the Supreme Court has come to addressing whether
commercial speech restrictions enjoy an exemption from the
30         JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

default rule of strict scrutiny for viewpoint discrimination
was in Sorrell v. IMS Health, Inc., 564 U.S. 552 (2011). The
Court there described the law’s “practical operation” as
“go[ing] beyond mere content discrimination[] to actual
viewpoint discrimination.” Id. at 565. The Court thus
concluded that “heightened judicial scrutiny [was]
warranted.” Id. Although it did not there define “heightened
judicial scrutiny,” the Court cited two cases, one of which
discussed intermediate scrutiny and one of which discussed
strict scrutiny. See id. (citing Cincinnati v. Discovery
Network, Inc., 507 U.S. 410, 418 (1993) (discussing
intermediate scrutiny), and Turner Broad. Sys., Inc. v. FCC,
512 U.S. 622, 658 (1994) (discussing strict scrutiny)).
    The Supreme Court noted that it could apply either “a
special commercial speech inquiry,” i.e., something like
Central Hudson’s intermediate scrutiny, “or a stricter form
of judicial scrutiny.” Id. at 571. The Court then assumed
without deciding that something like Central Hudson’s
intermediate scrutiny applied because “the outcome [was]
the same” regardless of which scrutiny the Court applied. Id.
But if the Court in Sorrell had definitely concluded that
commercial speech restrictions receive less than strict
scrutiny even when they target certain viewpoints, it would
have been odd for it to merely assume that something like
intermediate scrutiny applied. Sorrell thus suggests that the
Supreme Court has never carved out commercial speech
from the default rule that viewpoint-discriminatory speech
restrictions invoke strict scrutiny. It certainly doesn’t
compel the opposite conclusion.
   The fact that the Supreme Court has never expressly
exempted commercial speech from the standard application
of strict scrutiny for viewpoint-discriminatory laws is
especially probative given that the Court has exempted
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA           31

government speech, and done so expressly. As several
members of the Court pointed out, “[i]t is telling that the
Court’s precedents have recognized just one narrow
situation in which viewpoint discrimination is permissible:
where the government itself is speaking or recruiting others
to communicate a message on its behalf.” Matal v. Tam, 582
U.S. 218, 253 (2017) (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and
concurring in the judgment). “[W]hen the government
speaks for itself, the First Amendment does not demand
airtime for all views.” Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 142 S. Ct.
1583, 1587 (2022). By contrast, the Court has never clearly
exempted commercial speech.
    Indeed, it is not even clear that our own circuit’s
precedent requires we subject a law like AB 2751 to
anything less than strict scrutiny. California cites Retail
Digital Network, LLC v. Prieto to support its contention that
AB 2751, even if content-based, should receive only
intermediate scrutiny. See 861 F.3d 839, 846 (9th Cir. 2017)
(en banc). That is because our court there held that Sorrell
did not change the applicability of Central Hudson’s
intermediate scrutiny test to content-based restrictions on
commercial speech. Id. at 849. Then-Chief Judge S.R.
Thomas wrote a persuasive dissent in that case, explaining
how our court misread Sorrell. Id. at 851. I agree with him
that Sorrell “requires ‘heightened judicial scrutiny,’ rather
than traditional intermediate scrutiny under Central
Hudson.” Id.
    But putting aside whether Retail Digital Network was
correctly decided, it is not obvious that the analysis in Retail
Digital Network even controls laws that, like here,
discriminate on the basis of viewpoint. Our court in Retail
Digital Network never discussed the relevance of the test
applied in Sorrell to viewpoint-based restrictions on
32          JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

commercial speech. The court instead reasoned that Sorrell
did not change the applicability of Central Hudson to
content-based restrictions on speech. Id. at 848–49. While
Retail Digital Network does not mention viewpoint-
discrimination, one could argue that, in describing the
scrutiny applicable to restrictions of commercial speech on
the basis of content, our court also implicitly set the level of
scrutiny applicable to restrictions of commercial speech on
the basis of viewpoint—because the latter is a subset of the
former. See Rosenberger, 515 U.S. at 829. But the Supreme
Court has also been clear in regularly distinguishing “mere”
content-based discrimination from the even more troubling
viewpoint-based discrimination. See R.A.V., 505 U.S. at 391
(“In its practical operation, moreover, the ordinance goes
even beyond mere content discrimination, to actual
viewpoint discrimination.”). I have my doubts that we
should read a level of scrutiny applicable to less concerning
laws (content-based restrictions), as automatically applying
to more concerning laws (viewpoint-based restrictions)—
especially given that the First Amendment all but flatly
prohibits those more concerning laws.
     In short, there are good reasons to believe the First
Amendment subjects viewpoint-discriminatory commercial
speech restrictions to strict scrutiny. I see a lot in the
Supreme Court’s precedent supporting that conclusion, and
nothing in our precedent preventing it. But there is no need
to wrestle these questions to the ground in this case. In the
appropriate case where it makes a difference, we should look
at that question closely—and I would be surprised and
disappointed if the result was that we failed to subject to
strict scrutiny a law that targets speech because of its
viewpoint.
            JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA          33

                             ***
    The Court long ago held that commercial speech
deserves less protection under the First Amendment than
other speech. See Cent. Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp., 447 U.S.
at 563. Many have criticized the coherence and foundation
of that position. See 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island,
517 U.S. 484, 520 & n.2 (1996) (Thomas, J., concurring in
part and concurring in the judgment) (collecting cases). This
case illustrates one aspect of the damage done to our republic
by the commercial speech doctrine. It has become an
attractive nuisance to reactive legislatures that reflexively
attempt to target ideas the legislature finds disagreeable. AB
2751 is a particularly egregious example. The summary of
AB 2751 emphasizes a belief that, just because a law
addresses commercial speech, the government enjoys a
carveout from the typical scrutiny applied to a law that
directly targets ideas and messages for suppression. In other
words, the record suggests that California believed it could
rely on the courts’ lessened protection for “commercial
speech” to get away with activity—suppressing ideas and
messages the government merely finds disagreeable—that
strikes right at the heart of the First Amendment.
    But even Central Hudson recognized that we should
“review with special care regulations that entirely suppress
commercial speech in order to pursue a nonspeech-related
policy.” 447 U.S. at 566 n.9. What might justify a truly
neutral regulation cannot “save a regulation that is in reality
a facade for viewpoint-based discrimination.” Cornelius v.
NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, 473 U.S. 788, 811 (1985).
As the majority opinion correctly concludes, California here
did such a bad job that its attack on a disfavored viewpoint
cannot even withstand intermediate scrutiny. But we should
be cognizant of the risks that the commercial speech doctrine
34         JUNIOR SPORTS MAGAZINES, INC. V. BONTA

engenders from governments eager to impose their vision of
rightthink on the people. And in the appropriate case, we
should carefully consider whether our precedent and the
Supreme Court’s precedent are truly open to the
manipulation of free speech by governments that clothe their
disapprobation of certain viewpoints in restrictions on
commercial speech.