Board of Trustees of State Univ. of NY v. Fox

492 U.S. 469, 109 S. Ct. 3028, 106 L. Ed. 2d 388, 1989 U.S. LEXIS 3289, 57 U.S.L.W. 5015
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedJune 29, 1989
Docket87-2013
StatusPublished
Cited by1,208 cases

This text of 492 U.S. 469 (Board of Trustees of State Univ. of NY v. Fox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Trustees of State Univ. of NY v. Fox, 492 U.S. 469, 109 S. Ct. 3028, 106 L. Ed. 2d 388, 1989 U.S. LEXIS 3289, 57 U.S.L.W. 5015 (1989).

Opinions

Justice Scalia

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case presents the question whether governmental restrictions upon commercial speech are invalid if they go beyond the least restrictive means to achieve the desired end.

HH

The State University of New York (SUNY) has promulgated regulations governing the use of school property, including dormitories. One of these, Resolution 66-156 (1979), states:

“No authorization will be given to private commercial enterprises to operate on State University campuses or [472]*472in facilities furnished by the University other than to provide for food, legal beverages, campus bookstore, vending, linen supply, laundry, dry cleaning, banking, barber and beautician services and cultural events.”

American Future Systems, Inc. (AFS), is a company that sells housewares, such as china, crystal, and silverware, to college students; it markets its products exclusively by the technique popularly called (after the company that pioneered it) “Tupperware parties.” This consists of demonstrating and offering products for sale to groups of 10 or more prospective buyers at gatherings assembled and hosted by one of those prospective buyers (for which the host or hostess stands to receive some bonus or reward).

In October 1982, an AFS representative was conducting a demonstration of the company’s products in a student’s dormitory room at SUNY’s Cortland campus. Campus police asked her to leave because she was violating Resolution 66-156. When she refused, they arrested her and charged her with trespass, soliciting without a permit, and loitering. Respondent Fox, along with several fellow students at SUNY/ Cortland, sued for declaratory judgment that in prohibiting their hosting and attending AFS demonstrations, and preventing their discussions with other “commercial invitees” in their rooms, Resolution 66-156 violated the First Amendment. AFS joined the students as a plaintiff. The District Court granted a preliminary injunction, American Future Systems, Inc. v. State University of New York College at Cortland, 565 F. Supp. 754 (NDNY 1983), but, after a trial, found for the university on the ground that the SUNY dormitories did not constitute a public forum for the purpose of commercial activity and. that the restrictions on speech were reasonable in light of the dormitories’ purpose, 649 F. Supp. 1393 (1986).

A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed and remanded. 841 F. 2d 1207 (1988). Be[473]*473cause AFS had dropped out of the suit as a party, the only remaining issue was the students’ claim that their First Amendment rights had been infringed. Viewing the challenged application of Resolution 66-156 as a restriction on commercial speech, and therefore applying the test articulated in Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Comm’n of New York, 447 U. S. 557 (1980), the Court of Appeals concluded that it was unclear whether Resolution 66-156 directly advanced the State’s asserted interests and whether, if it did, it was the least restrictive means to that end. The Court of Appeals therefore reversed the judgment and remanded to the trial court for “a suitable order” based upon “appropriate findings” on these points.1 We granted certiorari, 488 U. S. 815 (1988).

In reviewing the reasoning the Court of Appeals used to decide this case,2 the first question we confront is whether the principal type of expression at issue is commercial speech. There is no doubt that the AFS “Tupperware parties” the students seek to hold “propose a commercial transaction,” Virginia Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U. S. 748, 762 (1976), which is the [474]*474test for identifying commercial speech, see Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico, 478 U. S. 328, 340 (1986). They also touch on other subjects, however, such as how to be financially responsible and how to run an efficient home. Relying on Riley v. National Federation of Blind of North Carolina, Inc., 487 U. S. 781, 796 (1988), respondents contend that here pure speech and commercial speech are “inextricably intertwined,” and that the entirety must therefore be classified as noncommercial. We disagree,

Riley involved a state-law requirement that in conducting fundraising for charitable organizations (which we have held to be fully protected speech) professional fundraisers must insert in their presentations a statement setting forth the percentage of charitable contributions collected during the previous 12 months that were actually turned over to charities (instead of retained as commissions). In response to the State’s contention that the statement was merely compelled commercial speech, we responded that, if so, it was “inextricably intertwined with otherwise fully protected speech,” and that the level of First Amendment scrutiny must depend upon “the nature of the speech taken as a whole and the effect of the compelled statement thereon.” Ibid. There, of course, the commercial speech (if it was that) was “inextricably intertwined” because the state law required it to be included. By contrast, there is nothing whatever “inextricable” about the noncommercial aspects of these presentations. No law of man or of nature makes it impossible to sell housewares without teaching home economics, or to teach home economics without selling housewares. Nothing in the resolution prevents the speaker from conveying, or the audience from hearing, these noncommercial messages, and nothing in the nature of things requires them to be combined with commercial messages.

Including these home economics elements no more converted AFS’ presentations into educational speech, than [475]*475opening sales presentations with a prayer or a Pledge of Allegiance would convert them into religious or political speech. As we said in Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp., 463 U. S. 60, 67-68 (1983), communications can “constitute commercial speech notwithstanding the fact that they contain discussions of important public issues. ... We have made clear that advertising which ‘links a product to a current public debate’ is not thereby entitled to the constitutional protection afforded noncommercial speech. Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Comm’n of New York, 447 U. S., at 563, n. 5.” We discuss this case, then, on the basis that commercial speech is at issue.

We have described our mode of analyzing the lawfulness of restrictions on commercial speech as follows:

“At the outset, we must determine whether the expression is protected by the First Amendment. For commercial speech to come within that provision, it at least must concern lawful activity and not be misleading. Next, we ask whether the asserted governmental interest is substantial.

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492 U.S. 469, 109 S. Ct. 3028, 106 L. Ed. 2d 388, 1989 U.S. LEXIS 3289, 57 U.S.L.W. 5015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-trustees-of-state-univ-of-ny-v-fox-scotus-1989.