Secondary effects doctrine

Definition

A First Amendment doctrine allowing governments to regulate adult businesses based on their non-speech-related impacts on surrounding communities—such as crime or declining property values—without triggering strict scrutiny, because the law targets effects rather than content.

Examples

• •Texas argued the secondary effects doctrine from City of Renton could support intermediate scrutiny here; petitioners and the government countered that Renton applies only to zoning, not to laws that directly target speech based on its sexual content.

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