CAN CLIMATE CHANGE LABELS BE 'PURELY FACTUAL AND UNCONTROVERSIAL'?

摘要

With every passing day, the dangers of climate change are becoming more and more obvious. One of the myriad solutions proposed to combat this crisis is the addition of warning and informational labels to gas pumps, airline tickets, energy bills, and even food and drinks, detailing the effects our purchases have on the climate and quantifying the amount each purchase has in terms of emissions. In fact, gas station pumps in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have already begun to display the first climate change warning labels on any gas station pumps in the United States. Yet, as the city of Cambridge itself acknowledged, any required labels would need to meet the First Amendment standard for government-compelled disclosures in commercial speech, set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of Supreme Court of Obio. To be constitutionally permitted, such labels need to be "purely factual and uncontroversial."