Commercial speech, protected speech, and political public relations

•We trace the legal framework for political public relations.•The importance of political public relations within democracy is shown.•American case law does not reflect the importance PR plays in democracy.•Legal implications for practicing political PR are shown.

Political public relations play an unique role in American democracy because it occupies a dual role of providing both political and commercial speech. However, using analysis of the First amendment, public relations have increasingly been identified as commercial speech which receives limited protection under the U.S. Constitution. This study traces the evolution of the legal framework in which political PR has become associated with commercial speech, and how this association has made Constitutional analysis of political PR more complex. Implications for public relations practitioners and PR's role in democracy are discussed.