ABSTRACT
Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico, 478 US 328, threw into doubt the continued utility and vitality of the test the US Supreme Court had used since 1980 in its First Amendment cases involving commercial speech . Puerto Rico had enacted a ban on advertising of gambling casinos to Puerto Rico residents but allowed such advertisements directed at tourists. Even using the less protective Central Hudson Gas test, however, these several justices thought the Puerto Rico law violated the First Amendment, as did Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote a separate dissent. In Central Hudson Gas and Electric Company v. Public Service Commission of New York, 447 US 557, the Court established a four-part analysis to determine when commercial speech was protected by the First Amendment and when it could be regulated by the government.
