context: * Indeed, the Fourth Circuit has declined to adopt an analysis, as some circuit courts have, which focuses on whether the government must look to the content of the speaker's message.
citation_a.signal: see
citation_a.identifier: 706 F.3d 302, 302
citation_a.parenthetical: "In our view ... such an approach imputes a censorial purpose to every content distinction, and thereby applies the highest judicial scrutiny to laws that do not always imperil the preeminent First Amendment values that such scrutiny serves to safeguard."
citation_a.sentence: See Brown v. Town of Cary, 706 F.3d at 302 (“In our view ... such an approach imputes a censorial purpose to every content distinction, and thereby applies the highest judicial scrutiny to laws that do not always imperil the preeminent First Amendment values that such scrutiny serves to safeguard.”). However, the court understands the Fourth Circuit’s guidance to indicate that a law, which distinguishes on the basis of content, will be classified as content-based unless the state can show that the law was adopted without a censorial purpose.
citation_b.signal: see also
citation_b.parenthetical: "[T]he mere assertion of a content-neutral purpose [is not] enough to save a law which, on its face, discriminates based on content."
citation_b.sentence: See Clatterbuck, 708 F.3d at 556; see also Turner Broad. Sys., Inc. v. FCC, 512 U.S. 622, 642-43, 114 S.Ct. 2445, 129 L.Ed.2d 497 (1994) (“[T]he mere assertion of a content-neutral purpose [is not] enough to save a law which, on its face, discriminates based on content.”). While Defendants articulate the correct standard which emphasizes the purpose behind the regulation’s adoption, (ECF No. 17-1 at 6-7), Defendants have not presented any evidence of the legislature’s intent in adopting § 16-17-446’s ban on political robocalls.