ABSTRACT
Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 US 809 (1975), is one in a series of significant US Supreme Court rulings granting limited First Amendment protections to commercial speech. In Bigelow, the Court, by a seven–two margin, reversed its prevailing tendency to limit protections of commercial speech, ruling that speech is not stripped of protections simply because it is a commercial advertisement. The facts in Bigelow involved the conviction of Jeffrey C. Bigelow on the charge of publishing an advertisement from a New York-based referral service that provided women with access to abortions. The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the conviction because Bigelow was engaging in what it viewed as purely commercial speech that the state could regulate. Finally, in Bigelow, the Court afforded certain protections to commercial speech. The conclusion in Bigelow did not stipulate that all truthful commercial speech was to be protected, but it moved the Court in that direction.
