A federal judge has blocked a new Illinois law that allows the state to penalize anti-abortion counseling centers if they use deception to interfere with patients seeking the procedure.

  • FlowVoid@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I don’t doubt your sincerity. But I think your legal analysis is wrong.

    The correct standard here is not strict scrutiny, it is intermediate scrutiny. This is a much more permissive standard that applies to all commercial speech. And it allows restrictions on what one can say, in order to prevent deceptive practices like those I described.

    The Supreme Court described their approach to commercial speech in 1980 (my emphasis):

    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.

    The Illinois law bans deceptive speech by certain companies trying to gain clients, and therefore it does not violate the First Amendment.

    • Melllvar@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Actually, it’s your legal analysis that is wrong. Because your analysis begs the very question that the court is trying to answer: is their speech protected?

      • FlowVoid@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The answer is right in the quote by the Supreme Court. Commercial speech is not protected if it’s misleading. So by definition, a law that bans deceptive speech is constitutional.

        In the case of these plaintiffs, maybe their speech is deceptive and maybe it isn’t. That’s up to a jury to determine. But either way, the law stands.

        In other words, it’s entirely possible that their speech is not deceptive but someone else’s is deceptive. The law would only apply to the latter.