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# Appeals Courts Applying Sorrell Decision: WLF
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/appeals-courts-applying-sorrell-decision-wlf/
- Published: 2016-01-28T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T02:31:52.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, FDA Policy/General, Devices, #legacy-id-D5134589

> Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) says that recent federal appeals court decisions suggest that the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in *Sorrell v. IMS Health* has led to an expansion of commercial speech. A WLF online *Legal Pulse* [says](http://wlflegalpulse.com/2016/01/21/sorrell-v-ims-health-is-gaining-traction-in-the-federal-appeals-courts/?ref=fdaweb.com#more-8915) that the high court held in *Sorrell* that content- or speaker-based restrictions on non-misleading commercial speech regarding lawful goods or services should be subjected to “heightened” judicial scrutiny.  
>  
> The post cites a California case decided by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that dealt with a law prohibiting liquor manufacturers and wholesalers from giving anything of value to retailers for advertising their alcoholic products. The decision overturned a 30-year-old circuit court precedent that upheld restrictions on advertising by alcoholic beverage retailers.  
>  
> The appeals court decision, the post says, indicates that “the federal appeals courts have taken the Supreme Court’s *Sorrell* decision to heart and are applying closer First Amendment scrutiny to restrictions on non-misleading commercial speech. The decision makes clear that when governments seek to restrict such commercial speech because they simply disapprove of the content or the speaker, they can expect courts to undertake a significantly more exacting scrutiny than they did in the pre-*Sorrell* era.”