Public Interest Law Firm Warns PA Lawmakers Against Regulating Speech

ARLINGTON, Va.—This week, the Institute for Justice (IJ) warned Pennsylvania lawmakers that attempting to regulate how the term “state fair” is used would violate residents’ First Amendment rights. 

A state representative recently circulated a memo proposing a bill to “prohibit fairs in Pennsylvania from using the title ‘state fair’ in their name and advertising.” 

Noting that several Pennsylvania fairs, including those in York and Carlisle, have incorporated “state” into their names in recent years, the lawmaker argues that new legislation would “keep all fairs across the state on the same level and not allude that they are recognized as the Official State fair of Pennsylvania,” and that the term “state fair” should be reserved for the Pennsylvania Farm Show, which is held indoors every year in January. 

But IJ Deputy Litigation Director Robert McNamara points out that the government isn’t permitted to regulate speech in this way. 

“Pennsylvania legislators can’t outlaw that name on the theory that visitors will falsely assume those fairs are sponsored by the state government despite years of experience that tells them otherwise (and despite the fact that Pennsylvania is, in fact, a Commonwealth),” McNamara said. “The government can only regulate speech like this to prevent fraud, not to police how ordinary citizens are allowed to talk to each other.” 

IJ is a nonprofit, public interest law firm that seeks to defend the free flow of information that is indispensable to our democratic form of government and to our free enterprise economy. Since its founding, IJ has launched more than 60 lawsuits to defend the First Amendment and has won the vast majority of them, including victories in front of federal appellate courts and the Supreme Court of the United States.