MC 4163 FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE:
Commercial Speech
Know the definitions and rules. Be able to correctly recognize and apply them in hypothetical situations.
- What are the three reasons commercial speech is granted less First Amendment protection than political speech?
- What are the differences between the way political and commercial speech are treated?
- How is commercial speech defined?
- Which commercial speech receives no First Amendment protection?
- Know the legal rules from each of the following cases. Explain how and why the level of First Amendment protection for commercial speech has changed in the cases.
- Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942)
- Times v. Sullivan (1964)
- Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Council (1976)
- Central Hudson Gas & Electric Co. v. Public Service Commission of New York
(1980)
- SUNY v. Fox (1989)
- Posadas de Puerto Rico v. Puerto Rican Tourism Co. (1986)
- Rubin v. Coors (1995)
- 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island (1996)
- Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association v. United States (1999)
- Thompson v. Western Medical
- Nike v. Kasky:When does a corporation's public relations campaign on a social issue become commercial speech that can be punished as deceptive advertising?
- What were the facts of the case?
- What is the issue in the case?
- What three factors did the court examine? What was the court's reasoning?
- Would the majority's decision and reasoning chill political and social speech by businesses?
- Do labor practices of companies matter to consumers? Did Nike think consumers care?
- What was the outcome of the case?
Central Hudson Test
From your readings, know the four-part Central Hudson test as described in Mass Communication Law in Oklahoma, not the description in Pember. Be able to correctly recognize and apply it in hypothetical situations.
- What must the government do under the second, third and fourth prongs to convince the court that the regulation is constitutional?
- What are commonly accepted as substantial interests?
- If the government can achieve its interests in a manner that does not restrict commercial speech, or that restricts less speech, must it do so?
- Does the USSC seem to have abandoned the "reasonable fit" test and returned to the "least restrictive means possible" requirement under the fourth prong? (see footnotes in Mass Communication Law in Oklahoma)
- How is the Central Hudson test strengthened by returning to its original requirement? (see footnotes in Mass Communication Law in Oklahoma)
- How have the prongs been applied (including the corresponding reasoning) in specific cases?
- Posadas
- Rubin v. Coors
- 44 Liquormart
- Greater New Orleans
- Thompson v. Western States Medical Center
- Pitt News v. Pappert
- In Thompson, what did Justice Sandra Day O'Conner say about the meaning of the First Amendment?
Is it a violation of the First Amendment for a newspaper or television station to refuse to carry an advertisement? Why?