Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued December 18, 1974
Decided June 16, 1975

Full case name

Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Citations

421 U.S. 809 (more)
421 U.S. 809; 95 S. Ct. 2222; 44 L. Ed. 2d 600; 1975 U.S. LEXIS 73; 1 Media L. Rep. 1919

Prior history

Conviction upheld by Virginia Supreme Court, 213 Va. 191, 191 S.E. 2d 173 (1972).

Holding

The First Amendment prevents states from prohibiting advertisements of clearly legal products or conduct.

Court membership

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger

Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan, Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell, Jr. · William Rehnquist

Case opinions

Majority

Blackmun, joined by Burger, Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, and Powell

Dissent

Rehnquist, joined by White

Laws applied

U.S. Const., Amends. I and XIV

Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 421 U.S. 809 (1975),^[1] was a case from the 1974 term of the Supreme Court of the United States. It established First Amendment protection for advertising.^[2]

1 Background
2 Opinion
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Background

Court precedents had long considered advertising mere "commercial speech," giving it little, if any, protection under the First Amendment.^[3]

In 1972, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a Supreme Court appeal on behalf of a newspaper editor in Charlottesville, Virginia who had published an advertisement for an abortion referral service in New York (where abortion was legal).^[4] Virginia charged the editor, Jeffrey C. Bigelow, with violating a state law that made it a crime to encourage abortions via lectures, advertisements, or any other manner.^[5] Bigelow was convicted and fined; the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed his conviction, rejecting his First Amendment challenge by pointing to the lowered protections on commercial advertisements.^[5]

Roe v. Wade was pending when Bigelow's appeal first reached the Supreme Court, leading the justices to defer action.^[5] After Roe was decided, the justices remanded Bigelow to Virginia, but the state court reaffirmed Bigelow's conviction; Bigelow filed a new appeal to the Supreme Court.^[5]

Opinion

The decision was announced June 16, 1975.^[6] Justices William Rehnquist and Byron White cast the only votes to uphold the conviction.^[7] Justice Blackmun wrote the majority opinion, and was joined by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justices Thurgood Marshall, Potter Stewart, William Brennan, William O. Douglas, and Lewis Powell.^[8]

Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that the First Amendment "should prevent states from prohibiting advertisements of products or conduct that is clearly legal at the place advertised."^[5] The Court also noted the political nature of abortion and its status as a constitutionally protected fundamental right.^[9]

Aftermath

Bigelow was used as precedent in a case in the 1975 term of the Court.^[6] In Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Blackmun struck down a state law that prohibited pharmacists from advertising the prices of prescription drugs.^[6] Justice William Rehnquist was the only dissenter.^[10]

References

^ 421 U.S. 809 Full text of the opinion courtesy of Findlaw.com.
^ Greenhouse, Linda. Becoming Justice Blackmun. Times Books. 2005. Page 119.
^ Greenhouse, Linda. Becoming Justice Blackmun. Times Books. 2005. Page 116.
^ Greenhouse, Pages 116-117
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Greenhouse, Page 117
^ ^a ^b ^c Greenhouse, Page 119
^ Greenhouse, Pages 117-118
^ Greenhouse, Page 118
^ Bigelow, 421 U.S. at 822.
^ Greenhouse, Page 120

External links

Text of Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 421 U.S. 809 (1975) is available from: Justia · Findlaw

United States First Amendment case law

Establishment Clause

Public funding	Everson v. Board of Education (1947) • McCollum v. Board of Education (1948) • Walz v. Tax Commission (1970) • Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) • Marsh v. Chambers (1983) • Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994) • Agostini v. Felton (1997) • Mitchell v. Helms (2000) • Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002) • Locke v. Davey (2004)

Public displays	Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) • County of Allegheny v. ACLU (1989) • McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005) • Van Orden v. Perry (2005)

School prayer	Zorach v. Clauson (1952) • Engel v. Vitale (1962) • School District of Abington Township v. Schempp (1963) • Stone v. Graham (1980) • Wallace v. Jaffree (1985) • Lee v. Weisman (1992) • Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe (2000) • Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004)

Creationism	Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) • Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) • Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (M.D. Pa. 2005)

Free Exercise Clause

Reynolds v. United States (1879) • Davis v. Beason (1890) • Braunfeld v. Brown (1961) • Torcaso v. Watkins (1961) • Sherbert v. Verner (1963) • Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) • Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division (1981) • Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) • Goldman v. Weinberger (1986) • Employment Division v. Smith (1990) • Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) • City of Boerne v. Flores (1997) • Watchtower Society v. Village of Stratton (2002) • Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005) • Gonzales v. UDV (2006)

Freedom of speech

Sedition and imminent danger	Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) • Schenck v. United States (1919) • Abrams v. United States (1919) • Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (S.D.N.Y. 1917) • Gitlow v. New York (1925) • Whitney v. California (1927) • Dennis v. United States (1951) • Yates v. United States (1957) • Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

Fighting words and the heckler's veto	Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940) • Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942) • Terminiello v. Chicago (1949) • Feiner v. New York (1951) • National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977) • R. A. V. v. City of St. Paul (1992) • Snyder v. Phelps (2011)

Freedom of assembly and public forums	Hague v. CIO (1939) • Schneider v. New Jersey (1939) • Martin v. Struthers (1943) • Niemotko v. Maryland (1951) • Cox v. Louisiana (1965) • Brown v. Louisiana (1966) • Coates v. Cincinnati (1971) • Adderley v. Florida (1966) • Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980) • Hill v. Colorado (2000)

Symbolic speech	United States v. O'Brien (1968) • Cohen v. California (1971) • Texas v. Johnson (1989) • United States v. Eichman (1990)

Compelled speech	Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) • West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) • Wooley v. Maynard (1977) • Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth (2000) • Davenport v. Washington Education Association (2007)

School speech	Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) • Board of Education v. Pico (1982) • Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser (1986) • Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988) • Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995) • Morse v. Frederick (2007)

Obscenity	Rosen v. United States (1896) • United States v. One Book Called Ulysses (S.D.N.Y. 1933) • Roth v. United States (1957) • One, Inc. v. Olesen (1958) • Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961) • MANual Enterprises v. Day (1962) • Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) • Quantity of Books v. Kansas (1964) • Freedman v. Maryland (1965) • Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966) • Redrup v. New York (1967) • Ginsberg v. New York (1968) • Stanley v. Georgia (1969) • United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs (1971) • Kois v. Wisconsin (1972) • Miller v. California (1973) • Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973) • United States v. 12 200-ft. Reels of Film (1973) • Jenkins v. Georgia (1974) • New York v. Ferber (1982) • American Booksellers v. Hudnut (7th Cir., 1985) • Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. (1986) • Osborne v. Ohio (1990) • United States v. X-Citement Video (1994) • Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997) • United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group (2000) • Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) • Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002) • Nitke v. Gonzales (S.D.N.Y., 2005) • United States v. Williams (2008) • FCC v. Fox Television Stations (2009 case) (2009) • American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression v. Strickland (6th Cir., 2009) • United States v. Kilbride (9th Cir., 2009) • United States v. Stevens (2010)

Public employees	Garner v. Board of Public Works (1951) • Pickering v. Board of Education (1968) • Connick v. Myers (1983) • Rankin v. McPherson (1987) • Waters v. Churchill (1994) • Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006) • Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri (2011)

Hatch Act and similar laws	Ex parte Curtis (1882) • United Public Workers v. Mitchell (1947) • United States Civil Service Commission v. National Association of Letter Carriers (1973) • Broadrick v. Oklahoma (1973)

Commercial speech	Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942) • Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations (1973) • Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1974) • Virginia State Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976) • Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977) • Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Willingboro (1977) • Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980) • Consol. Edison Co. v. Public Serv. Comm'n (1980) • Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission of California (1986) • San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee (1987) • 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island (1996)

Campaign finance and political speech	Buckley v. Valeo (1976) • First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978) • Citizens Against Rent Control v. City of Berkeley (1981) • California Medical Association v. FEC (1981) • Brown v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Committee (1982) • FEC v. National Conservative Political Action Committee (1985) • FEC v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life (1986) • Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) • McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995) • Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC (1996) • Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000) • FEC v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (2001) • McConnell v. FEC (2003) • FEC v. Beaumont (2003) • Randall v. Sorrell (2006) • FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007) • Davis v. FEC (2008) • Citizens United v. FEC (2010) • Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett. (2011)

Freedom of the press

Prior restraints and censorship	Near v. Minnesota (1931) • Lovell v. City of Griffin (1938) • New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) • Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974) • Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart (1976)

Taxation and privileges	Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936) • Branzburg v. Hayes (1972) • Minneapolis Star Tribune Company v. Commissioner (1983)

Defamation	New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) • Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967) • Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) • Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (1984) • Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc. (1985) • McDonald v. Smith (1985) • Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988) • Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990)

Broadcast media	Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC (1969) • FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978) • Turner Broadcasting v. FCC (1994) • Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001)

Freedom of association

NAACP v. Alabama (1958) • Roberts v. United States Jaycees (1984) • Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston (1995) • Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)