Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission

Pacific Gas & Electric v. Public Utilities Commission, 475 U.S. 1 (1986), was a United States Supreme Court case involving the requirement that San Francisco-based public utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company carry a message supplied by a public interest group in rebuttal to the messages the utility supplied in its newsletter which it placed in its billing envelope.

Pacific Gas & Electric v. Public Utilities Commission
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 8, 1985 Decided February 25, 1986
Full case name	Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission of California et al.
Citations	475 U.S. 1 (more) 106 S. Ct. 903; 89 L. Ed. 2d 1; 1986 U.S. LEXIS 1
Holding
A private publisher cannot be forced to carry messages inconsistent with its views.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Plurality	Powell, joined by Burger, Brennan, O'Connor
Concurrence	Burger
Concurrence	Marshall (in judgment)
Dissent	Rehnquist, joined by White, Stevens (part I only)
Dissent	Stevens
Blackmun took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

The rationale used by the regulatory agency was that the space in the billing envelope which could have material added that did not increase postage belonged to the ratepayers rather than the utility; thus the commission could order the utility to allow other groups to use that space subject to restrictions.

The U.S. Supreme Court found the order of the California Public Utilities Commission to be unconstitutional, as the right to speak includes the right not to carry messages one disagrees with. As the court stated, "the choice to speak includes within it the choice of what not to say."

This is one of the cases which has essentially granted, with very limited exceptions, the absolute right of a publisher to choose not to carry messages it does not agree with.