United States Fifth Circuit

In a suit challenging a Texas statute restricting the right of an auto insurer to own and operate auto body shops, judgment rejecting plaintiff's dormant Commerce Clause challenge but finding that certain provisions of the statute violated the First Amendment is affirmed where: 1) the commercial speech in question was not false or misleading or concerning unlawful behavior; 2) the statute was not narrowly tailored to meet the asserted state objectives; and 3) the district court did not err in declaring the statute's provisions facially invalid.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/01/2007
• Published 08/02/2007

Judges

• W. EUGENE DAVIS, Circuit Judge:, Before KING, DAVIS and BARKSDALE, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Kenneth Winston Starr (argued), Kirkland & Ellis, Los Angeles, CA, Colin Kass, Tefft W. Smith, Kirkland & Ellis, Washington, DC, Orrin L. Harrison, III, William Henry Church, Jr., Cara Foos Pierce, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Dallas, TX, for Allstate Ins. Co. and Sterling Collision Centers, Inc., Don Cruse (argued), Austin, TX, for Greg Abbott and Susan Combs., Michael Vance Powell (argued), Thomas George Yoxall, William Scott Hastings, Locke, Liddell & Sapp, Dallas, TX, for Automotive Service Ass'n and Consumer Choice for Auto Body Repair., Glenn Paul Orgeron, Lisa Ann Easterling, Kean, Miller, Hawthorne, D'Armond, McCowan & Jarman, New Orleans, LA, for Property Casualty Insurers Ass'n of America, Amicus Curiae.