Valentine v. Chrestensen, 316 U.S. 52

Case citation

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

 (1942), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 ruled that commercial speech

Speech

Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...

 is not protected under the First Amendment

Introduction

The case started when the respondent, F.J. Chrestensen violated a New York City municipal ordinance

Local ordinance

A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...

 (§318 of the Sanitary Code

Code

A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation , not necessarily of the same type....

) which prohibited distributing printed handbills in the street

Street

A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...

s bearing "commercial advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 matter." Chrestensen was using the handbills to promote his exhibit of a World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 that was moored at a State

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 pier in the East River

East River

The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...

 and open for the public

Public

In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individuals, and the public is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science,...

 if they paid the stated admission

Admission to an event or establishment

Admission to a journey or other event or establishment may be subject to paying an entrance fee / buying a ticket. A pass may give admittance without a ticket for a given time period, or give the right to obtain free tickets. A discount pass allows buying tickets at a reduced price...

 fee

Fee

A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup.Traditionally, professionals in Great Britain received a fee in contradistinction to a payment, salary, or wage, and would often use guineas rather than pounds as units of account...

.

Chrestensen was told by the Police Commissioner

Police commissioner

Commissioner is a senior rank used in many police forces and may be rendered Police Commissioner or Commissioner of Police. In some organizations, the commissioner is a political appointee, and may or may not actually be a professional police officer. In these circumstances, there is often a...

 of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, Lewis J. Valentine

Lewis J. Valentine

Lewis Joseph Valentine was the New York City Police Commissioner from 1934 to 1945, under Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia during the Murder, Inc. era. He was the author of an autobiography Night stick: The autobiography of Lewis J...

, that he could not distribute the handbills bearing the commercial or business advertising matter. Valentine also advised Chrestensen that he could only distribute handbills solely devoted to "information

Information

Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...

, or a public protest

Protest

A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

."http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/Speech/advertising/overview.aspx

Chrestensen remade his handbill, by removing the admission fee on the front advertisement and on the reverse side placing a protest against the city's refusal.

Decision of the Court

The court decided that "purely commercial advertising" is not protected under the first amendment. The court explained its decision as to why advertising did not afford the same protection as "political speech" under the first amendment because:
a) advertising is not as important as political speech
b) it is harder to chill advertising, which has a strong profit motive
c) it's easier to verify ad claims than political claims, and therefore we have no need to tolerate false advertising

Subsequent history

This case was later overturned by Virginia State Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council

Virginia State Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council

Virginia State Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748 , was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that a state could not limit pharmacists’ right to provide information about prescription drug prices...

. (1976)

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