ABSTRACT
In United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group, 529 US 803, the US Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of a content-based restriction on broadcasting contained in section 505 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and held the law violated the rights of free speech protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Playboy Entertainment Group filed suit in federal court in Delaware seeking an injunction to block enforcement of section 505 as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The government appealed to the Supreme Court, which was sharply divided in its five-four opinion. In other words, a permissible government solution could not also violate the Constitution. Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined in the majority opinion. The underlying premise of the dissent was that the government was entitled to dictate reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on commercial speech.
