Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Co. of Puerto Rico

Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 28, 1986 Decided July 1, 1986
Full case name	Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates, dba Condado Holiday Inn v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico et al.
Citations	478 U.S. 328 (more) 106 S. Ct. 2968; 92 L. Ed. 2d 266
Holding
Puerto Rico's Games of Chance Act of 1948, as narrowed by the Puerto Rican Superior Court, was not facially unconstitutional because the population specific ban on commercial speech related to casino gambling cleared the Central Hudson standard.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by Burger, White, Powell, O'Connor
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Marshall, Blackmun
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. I, XIV

Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Co. of Puerto Rico, 478 U.S. 328 (1986), was a 1986 appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to determine whether Puerto Rico's Games of Chance Act of 1948 is in legal compliance with the United States Constitution, specifically as regards freedom of speech, equal protection and due process.^[1] In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the Puerto Rico government (law) could restrict advertisement for casino gambling from being targeted to residents, even if the activity itself was legal and advertisement to tourists was permitted. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Puerto Rico Supreme Court conclusion, as construed by the Puerto Rico Superior Court, that the Act and regulations do not facially violate the First Amendment, nor did it violate the due process or Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.^[1]

The controversial case has been subsequently referenced with respect to the legality of bans on tobacco advertising, liquor advertising and other advertisement related to gambling. It is regarded as a landmark case in illustrating the elasticity of the Central Hudson standards for regulating commercial speech,^[2] as the Court did not request evidence or argument supporting the need of Puerto Rico to regulate such advertisement, but merely accepted that such regulations seemed reasonable. It also implicitly allowed for more strict regulations on commercial speech related to legal but presumably dangerous "vice" activities. Although there have been calls to overturn Posadas and it has been ignored as precedent in some, if not all, subsequent cases, the case has never been officially overruled.