Lexington H-L Services, Inc., dba Lexington Herald Leader v. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government

The Community News is a free community newsweekly that has been distributed to homes in the Lexington, Kentucky area for several years by a traditional method of newspaper delivery, “driveway delivery,” by which news carriers throw the paper onto the driveways or yards of area homes. Residents who do not wish to receive The Community News, however, are able to opt out of delivery. In 2017, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (“the County”) enacted an Ordinance prohibiting driveway delivery of The Community News; instead, the County requires delivery of “unsolicited” materials, including the weekly newspaper, to one of six specified locations at each residence. Pet. App. 29a. The nature of the permitted delivery locations effectively requires the newspaper to be distributed by hand delivery. The restrictions imposed by the County and approved by the decisions below place the constitutionally protected distribution of news and information in serious jeopardy. The Sixth Circuit’s approval of the Ordinance as a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction cannot be squared with the First Amendment, a longstanding body of this Court’s jurisprudence applying free speech and free press protections to the distribution of news and information, and the substantial weight of authority in state and federal courts that have considered the issue. See Martin v. City of Struthers, 319 U.S. 141 (1943) (holding that the First Amendment protects the direct distribution of written information to homeowners). The conflict of authority created by the decision below and the lingering uncertainty regarding the reasonable limits on time, place, and