[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<
http://www2.law.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/foliocgi.exe/historic/query=%5Bgroup+f_c
ommercial+speech!3A%5D/doc/%7Bt78550%7D/hit_headings/words=4/pageitems=%7Bbo
dy%7D>
This URL worked. I pasted it in, but had to take the < > out of it, and it
displayed things just fine.
Now, for what the page is about:
Held: A regulation of appellee New York Public Service Commission which
completely bans an electric utility from advertising to promote the use of
electricity violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Pp. 561-572 .
(a) Although the Constitution accords a lesser protection to commercial
speech than to other constitutionally guaranteed expression, nevertheless the
First Amendment protects commercial speech from unwarranted governmental
regulation. For commercial speech to come within the First Amendment, it at
least must concern lawful activity and not be misleading. Next, it must be
determined whether the asserted governmental interest to be served by the
restriction on commercial speech is substantial. If both inquiries yield
positive answers, it must then be decided whether the regulation directly
advances the governmental interest asserted, and whether it is not more
extensive than is necessary to serve that interest. Pp. 561-566 .
(Underline emphasis added.)
The case was about a company being restricted from advertising what it sells,
and winning the argument that it should be allowed to do so. Of course that
is an undue restriction on free speech.
However -- note the underlined part: "it at least must concern lawful
activity and not be misleading." If Congress under its Constitutional power
"fix[es] the Standard of Weights and Measures" as metric, then a strong
argument exists that advertising in any other type of unit would at the very
least be misleading, and could even be not lawful. (This is why we have a
Federal Trade Commission!) The commercial activity is not restricted from
advertising. It only has to conform any measurements used in its advertising
to the national measurement standard.
I'm not a lawyer, but I do NOT see a constitutional problem with that. Many
other similar things are also regulated and controlled.
Carleton
