Law Commons^™

You Can Say That Again!: A Way Out Of The Compelled Commercial Speech Conundrum, Dayna B. Royal

Dayna B. Royal

In the last decade the Supreme Court has modified the compelled-speech and commercial-speech doctrines by creating a hybrid of the two—compelled-commercial speech. This nascent doctrine leaves unanswered serious questions about how it coexists with other doctrines in the First Amendment landscape.

This paper proposes a principled means to resolve these questions by drawing on an innovative behavioral-science theory called Cultural Cognition to provide a system for categorizing forced commercial-speech regulations. By establishing which test applies to determine whether regulations violate the First Amendment, this framework should help bring consistency and predictability into a murky area of First Amendment law.

Cultural Cognition As A Tool To Combat The Compelled-Commercial-Speech Conundrum, Dayna B. Royal

Dayna B. Royal

In the last decade the Supreme Court has modified the compelled-speech and commercial-speech doctrines by creating a hybrid of the two—compelled-commercial speech. This nascent doctrine leaves unanswered serious questions about how it coexists with other doctrines in the First Amendment landscape. This paper proposes a principled means to resolve these questions by drawing on an innovative behavioral-science theory called Cultural Cognition to provide a system for categorizing forced commercial-speech regulations. By establishing which test applies to determine whether regulations violate the First Amendment, this framework should help bring consistency and predictability into a murky area of First Amendment law.

The Skinny On The Federal Menu-Labeling Law & Why It Should Survive A First Amendment Challenge, Dayna B. Royal

Dayna B. Royal

In America’s battle of the bulge, the bulge is winning. Contributing to this obesity epidemic is Americans’ increasingly widespread practice of eating at restaurants where deceptively fattening food is served to patrons who grossly underestimate the calories in their meals.

To combat this problem and promote public health, Congress enacted a federal menu-labeling law, which requires that restaurants post calorie information next to menu offerings. The constitutionality of this law has yet to be tested in court. But New York City’s law, enacted prior, has survived First Amendment scrutiny.

Like New York’s menu-labeling law, the federal law should withstand a …