## Facts

- Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (Con Ed) is a regulated public utility providing electricity to customers in New York.
- Con Ed included inserts with its monthly bills expressing its views on matters of public policy, including support for nuclear power.
- After a customer complaint, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) initiated proceedings and issued an order barring utilities from including in monthly bills “inserts discussing controversial issues of public policy.”
- The PSC allowed inserts that provided consumer information (e.g., energy conservation) but prohibited inserts addressing public controversies.
- Con Ed challenged the order in state court; the New York Court of Appeals upheld the order.
- Con Ed appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether a state utility regulator may constitutionally prohibit a regulated utility from including bill inserts discussing controversial public policy issues.
2. Whether the prohibition is a permissible time, place, or manner restriction or an impermissible content-based restriction on speech.
3. Whether asserted state interests in protecting customers from unwanted messages and preventing ratepayer-funded advocacy justify the ban.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the judgment upholding the PSC order and remanded.
- The Court held that the order directly infringed speech protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
- The Court rejected the claim that corporate status removes First Amendment protection for public-issue advocacy.
- The Court found the prohibition content-based because it turned on the subject matter of the insert (public controversies versus permitted topics like conservation).
- The Court rejected the “captive audience” justification because customers could avoid exposure by discarding the insert.
- The Court concluded the asserted interests, including privacy and concerns about ratepayer subsidy or limited envelope space, did not justify a categorical ban.

## Legal Principles

- Corporate speakers, including regulated utilities, have First Amendment protection when speaking on matters of public policy.
- A regulation that restricts speech based on subject matter is content-based and is not a valid time, place, or manner regulation.
- The First Amendment bars prohibitions on public discussion of an entire topic absent a compelling justification and narrow tailoring.
- A “captive audience” rationale is weak where recipients can readily avoid the message without meaningful burden.
- Extensive economic regulation of an industry does not authorize broad, categorical suppression of protected expression through content-based rules.

## Conclusion

The Court invalidated New York’s ban on utility bill inserts discussing controversial public policy issues, holding that the PSC’s subject-matter restriction violated the First Amendment as applied to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment.


Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y. v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 447 U.S. 530 (1980)