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Not according to the supposedly liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The AP reports:
A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a Nevada law that bars legal brothels that operate in some of the state’s rural areas from advertising by newspaper, leaflets and billboards in Las Vegas, Reno and other places where prostitution is illegal.
Prostitution is legal in most Nevada counties, but of course many state residents still oppose it. Their views, the court seemed to suggest, outweigh the right to free speech:
“The Nevada laws appropriately limited commercial speech,” the 9th Circuit said. “We conclude that the interest in preventing the commodification of sex is substantial.”
ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein says there’s an obvious weakness in the court’s reasoning:
It’s a violation of the First Amendment for the state to restrict advertising by a legal industry, and it’s wrong for a court to make exceptions because the state doesn’t want to have it advertised that legalized prostitution exists, Lichtenstein said.
