In Kansas v. United States, 16 F.3d 436 (D.C. Cir.) cert. denied 115 S. Ct. 354 (1994), petitioners challenged the Wright Amendment, section 29 of the International Air Transportation Competition Act of 1979. The Wright Amendment prohibits airlines, with certain limited exceptions, from offering direct interstate flights from Love Field in Dallas. The Wright Amendment required interstate passengers flying from Love Field to make an intermediate stop in a contiguous state and to change planes before arriving at their final destination. The amendment was a result of Southwest Airlines refusal to leave Love Field for Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
The court found that the amendment did not violate the right to free access to interstate travel on the basis that the purpose of the amendment was to promote interstate travel by sending it through the new DFW airport.
The court also found that even though the amendment prevented Southwest from offering for sale transportation outside of the contiguous state area, the airline's right to free speech was not violated. Since this speech is commercial, the court found that the restriction on free speech was in support of a substantial governmental interest in protecting interstate travel in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and that the advertising ban was narrowly tailored.
In Hawley v. City of Cleveland, 24 F.3d 814 (6th Cir. 1994), city taxpayers challenged lease of airport space to the Catholic Diocese for use as a chapel claiming that the lease violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
In evaluating the constitutionality of the lease, the court considered whether the lease enhance or inhibited religion and whether the lease fostered an excessive government entanglement with religion.
The court upheld the lease finding that the chapel served the secular purpose of accommodating the needs of travelers and a reasonable observer would not conclude that the city endorsed the Catholic religion.
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