The First Amendment broadly prohibits the government from making laws that restrict

freedom of speech. Political speech includes not just speech by the government or candidates
for office, but also any discussion of social issues. Commercial speech, on the other hand,
advertises a product or service for sale. The Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution as
providing stronger protection to political speakers than to advertisers.
Purpose and Intent
The purpose for the speech is perhaps the key difference between political and commercial
speech. Political speech focuses on the public good, but commercial speech only benefits a
single private entity -- the seller of the product or service advertised. While commercial
speech aims at your wallet, political speech aims at your mind. Because functional democracy
depends on the ability of the people to openly debate public issues and criticize government
officials without fear, free political speech is judged to be more important than free
commercial speech.
Constitutional Protection
Since political speech is more important than commercial speech, it stands to reason it would
be entitled to the strongest protection the First Amendment can provide. Discussion and
debate of issues of public concern can be restricted only in the rarest of circumstances, and the
government must have a strong, compelling interest for doing so. Commercial speech is seen
as having far less value, and thus is granted far less constitutional protection. In fact, until
1975 the Supreme Court held that commercial speech had no protection whatsoever under the
First Amendment and governments could regulate it at will. While commercial speech has
gained some protection, federal, state and local governments still have broad authority to
restrict advertising provided regulation furthers a substantial interest, such as protecting the
public from fraud.
The Right to Lie
Political speech has so much protection under the First Amendment that the government can't
even make laws to keep people from lying about political issues. For example, a candidate for
public office has the right to fabricate or distort his past voting record. Free speech relies on
an informed electorate to uncover the truth, rather than allowing the government to restrict
speech. Someone personally injured by defamatory political speech retains the right to sue the
speaker for the resulting damage to his reputation. In contrast, false or misleading commercial
speech has no First Amendment protection, and can be banned by federal, state or local law.
A Question of Context
The First Amendment only applies to government action. Private individuals or corporations
cannot violate your First Amendment rights, and are free to regulate the speech of anyone
under their authority. For example, a private school may have rules restricting teachers or
students from discussing political issues. However, since public schools are government
entities, they have more limited abilities to control the speech of their faculty and students.
Public school students retain some rights to free speech, but school authorities do have the
ability to limit those rights to maintain order and discipline within the school setting.