City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc.
United States Supreme Court
475 U.S. 41 (1986)
Renton (defendant) enacted a zoning ordinance barring adult motion-picture theaters from locating within 1,000 feet of any residential zone, dwelling, church, park, or school, defining "adult" theaters by whether they showed media depicting specified sexual content. Playtime Theatres (plaintiff) challenged the ordinance as an unconstitutional restriction on First Amendment expression; the district court granted the city summary judgment, and the court of appeals reversed.
Whether content-neutral time, place, and manner regulations are acceptable under the First Amendment so long as they are designed to serve a substantial governmental interest and do not unreasonably limit alternative avenues of communication.