The Openness of the Commercial Free Speech Test and the Value of Self-Realization

Abstract

There is certainly more than one way to think of self-realization as a value underlying freedom of commercial speech and its regulation. The accompanying Article argues for the distinctive importance of a particular version of self-realization: that of freely arrived-at human flourishing, personal development, genuine fulfillment, and even happiness itself. It is contended that the main current commercial free speech test, as developed in the Central Hudson case, can actually be interpreted as compatible with a relatively lax mere reasonableness test. Under our current broad cultural, institutional, and economic circumstances and power relationships, the most valuable forms of the free speech value of self-realization are generally best promoted by a mere reasonableness test of pure commercial speech regulations.