GREATER NEW ORLEANS BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION, ET AL., Plaintiffs-Appellants, versus UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 94-30732
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
July 30, 1998
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
ON REMAND FROM THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, JONES, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.
The Supreme Court remanded this case for reconsideration in light of 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U.S. 484, 116 S. Ct. 1495 (1996). Concluding that 44 Liquormart requires us to revise the Central Hudson1 analysis in our previous opinion, we amend that opinion but nevertheless affirm the judgment of the district court.
In response to the appearance of state-sponsored lotteries, Congress might have continued to ban all radio or television lottery advertisements, even by stations in States that have legalized lotteries.
United States v. Edge Broad. Co., 509 U.S. 418, 428, 113 S. Ct. 2696, 2704 (1993). On the other hand, after 44 Liquormart was decided, the Ninth Circuit felt obliged to hold unconstitutional the provision at issue in this case, which bans radio and television advertisements for privately-run casino gambling.2 Has Edge lost its edge in the succeeding five years? Or on the contrary, has the rule of Edge, become a constitutional mandate? Such that Congress can now ban broadcast advertisements for gambling only in states that prohibit such gambling? Finally, has the Supreme Court gone over the edge in constitutionalizing speech protection for socially harmful activities? The following
To put the discussion in perspective, it is necessary to review this court‘s previous application of the Central Hudson balancing test to
The majority distinguished the Supreme Court‘s striking down of a federal prohibition on labeling the alcoholic strength of beer, where the entire legislative scheme represented an “irrational” patchwork and actually approved promotional advertising of stronger alcoholic beverages. Rubin v. Coors Brewing Co., 514 U.S. 476, 486-87, 115 S. Ct. 1585, 1591-92 (1995). The panel‘s dissent, however, relied heavily on Rubin to emphasize that federal law embodies a ban on advertising various forms of gambling “so pockmarked with exceptions and buffeted by countervailing state policies that it provides, at most, a very minimum support for the asserted interest.”5 Greater New Orleans
This Court‘s majority and dissenting decisions also disagreed about the fourth Central Hudson criterion, which analyzes whether
The Court was nearly uniform, however,6 concerning
Eight members of the Court also ruled out the deference to the legislature demonstrated in the Posadas case with respect to restrictions on commercial speech. As Justice O‘Connor put it,
The closer look that we have required since Posadas comports better with the purpose of the analysis set out in Central Hudson, by requiring the state to show that the speech restriction directly advances its interest and is narrowly tailored.
44 Liquormart, 517 U.S. at 531-32, 116 S. Ct. at 1522.
Having sketched both this court‘s previous opinion and 44 Liquormart, we turn to the remand.
To the extent that the Court‘s remand provides a general opportunity to reconsider our opinion, it must be noted that the Ninth Circuit in Valley Broadcasting Co. v United States, 107 F.3d 1328 (9th Cir. 1997), agreed with the dissenter in this case and
We remain persuaded, for the reasons stated in our previous opinion, that Rubin does not compel the striking down of
After 44 Liquormart, however, the fourth-prong “reasonable fit” inquiry under Central Hudson has become a tougher standard for the state to satisfy. Little deference can be accorded to the state‘s legislative determination that a commercial speech restriction is no more onerous than necessary to serve the government‘s interests. Posadas has been discredited to this
The government still contends, however, that a ban on broadcast advertising for casino gambling is no more extensive than necessary to serve its interests in reducing public participation in commercial gambling and in back-stopping the policies of anti-gambling states. While not limiting its argument to the full scope of social ills historically associated with gambling,9 the government‘s remand brief focuses on the broadcast advertising restriction as an effective means to counteract compulsive gambling. Unfortunately, the government‘s assertions concerning compulsive gambling, intuitively sensible though some of them are,10
Experts attribute these rising numbers to the growing acceptance of gambling within America‘s entertainment culture, where casinos advertise as family resorts filled with the glamour and allure of easy millions. See id. (quoting Professor Shaffer). Short of prohibiting gambling altogether, limiting broadcast messages about casino gambling may indeed be one of the most effective methods of limiting a compulsive gambler‘s exposure to a lifestyle that can be as irresistible as it is socially destructive. See, e.g., William Safire, A Gambling Lesson: There‘s Now a Sucker Born Every Second, Dallas Morning News, June 6, 1998, at 11A (“[M]any psychiatrists suggest[] that a significant number of gamblers . . . were encouraged in their addiction by the lure of casino advertising.“); see Harden & Swardson, supra note 9 (noting that the increased availability of gambling is fueling the addiction).
Compulsive gamblers often suffer from financial hardship, emotional difficulties, including alcoholism, depression, stress-related diseases, and suicide attempts. See also Harden & Swardson, supra note 9; Problem Gamblers, Rolling the Dice with their Lives, Buff. News, June 25, 1996, at C1. Moreover, experts estimate that the trouble of each compulsive gambler affects the lives of ten to seventeen people. See, e.g., Gordon Johnson, Everybody Loses, Press-Enterprise, Jan. 25, 1998, at D1. Very often, the gambler‘s loved ones must endure emotional turmoil, financial neglect, abuse, and divorce. Studies also suggest that children of compulsive gamblers perform worse academically, are more likely to become alcoholics, develop gambling problems
The federal government‘s policy toward legalized gambling is consciously ambivalent. What began as a prohibition on all interstate lottery advertising has been successively, but gingerly modified to respect varying state policies and the federal government‘s encouragement of Indian commercial gambling. The remaining advertising limits reflect congressional recognition that gambling has historically been considered a vice; that it may be an
In both Edge and Posadas, federal and territorial governmental decisions to discourage certain types of gambling, while couched in ambivalence similar to that contained in
A direct inference from Edge would therefore be that if
44 Liquormart does not undercut this reasoning. The blanket ban on price advertising there was viewed as too great an imposition on speech because it was (a) comprehensive and (b) an indirect, imperfect tool for manipulating prices compared with alternative direct policies such as minimum prices or taxation.
By these tests,
The government also defends the nationwide prohibition of this advertising as necessary to enforce the policies of non-casino-gambling states like Texas. The broadcasters view this restriction as overbroad and assert that only an Edge-like compromise, whereby broadcasters in pro-gambling states could advertise their casinos while non-gambling-state broadcasters could not do so, is constitutionally mandated by the narrow tailoring test. Perhaps the Supreme Court will see it this way; or perhaps the Supreme Court will overrule Edge as inconsistent with its cases in the ensuing five years. But 44 Liquormart does not provide any basis for reaching such results, and the broadcasters have identified no non-speech-related alternatives to
In response to the appearance of state-sponsored lotteries, Congress might have continued to ban all radio or television lottery advertisements, even by stations in States that have legalized lotteries.
509 U.S. at 428, 113 S. Ct. at 2704. Central Hudson, as applied after 44 Liquormart, does not inhibit all legislative flexibility in confronting challenging social developments.
Moreover, if this remand opinion is wrong, and
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
ENDRECORD
Having concluded previously that the federal ban on broadcast advertisement of casino gambling fails to satisfy the requirements of Central Hudson,16 the stricter standard employed by the Supreme Court in 44 Liquormart17 only strengthens my convictions. Thus, for the reasons assigned in my prior dissent, I must continue to dissent.18
The failure of the Justices to reach an agreement in 44 Liquormart about the specifics of the parameters of the constitutional review to be applied to commercial speech restrictions deprives the lower courts of the
A close reading of 44 Liquormart discloses, however, that a majority of the Court felt strongly that truthful commercial speech about lawful services should enjoy greater first amendment protections than that previously afforded. It appears manifest that the Court will no longer defer to “legislative judgment,” grant “broad discretion” for “paternalistic purposes,” accept the “greater-includes-the-lesser” reasoning, or defer to the “vice” exception.19 Read together, the opinions in 44 Liquormart teach that the government must use direct methods of controlling disfavored behavior. This, combined with the heavy burden of proof that is now placed on the government, substantially undercuts the validity of laws, such as the statute at issue here, which restrict nondeceptive commercial information.
I respectfully dissent.
