Judicial Review of Commercial Speech
Government Interests and the Freedom to Advertise
According to United States v. Edge Broadcasting Co. (1993), "The Constitution … affords a lesser protection to commercial speech than to other constitutionally guaranteed expression." Commercial speech is "speech that proposes a commercial transaction." — Board of Trustees of the State University of New York v. Fox (1989). That books and films are published and sold for profit does not make them commercial speech; i.e., it does not "prevent them from being a form of expression whose liberty is safeguarded [to the maximum extent] by the First Amendment." — Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson (1952). Commercial speech, however, may be…
