Compelled Speech and the First Amendment: Neutral Fact or Government Opinion?

From The Washington Legal Foundation:

The Constitution/Civil Liberties

Compelled Speech and the First Amendment: Neutral Fact or Government Opinion?

by Charles M. English

Washington Legal Foundation

January 27, 2012

This legal backgrounder explores how the present Supreme Court’s textual reading of the First Amendment affects pending governmental efforts to compel private party speech with respect to tobacco (Food and Drug Administration regulations requiring new warning labels including specific government prescribed graphic images) and cell phones (San Francisco’s new requirement that cell phone retailers provide government prescribed posters, “fact-sheets,” and warning stickers on promotional literature). Both laws are presently enjoined and headed for expedited review by the United States Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, respectively.

URL: www.wlf.org/upload/legalstudies/legalbackgrounder/1-13-12English_LegalBackgrounder.pdf