The Government argues, and we agree, § 4.11 is reasonable on its face and as applied to Bryant's ads. The restrictions in § 4.11 upon the content of advertising are reasonably designed to ensure that advertising furthers (or at least does not hinder) the mission of a military command or installation, which is obviously a legitimate goal.
See Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503, 507, 106 S.Ct. 1310, 89 L.Ed.2d 478 (1986) (“The military need not encourage debate or tolerate protest to the extent that such tolerance is required of the civilian state by the First Amendment; to accomplish its mission the military must foster instinctive obedience, unity, commitment, and esprit de corps”). The “political” content barred by § 4.11—discussion of campaigns, candidates, parties, issues, and DoD policies—may disrupt the mission by undermining the camaraderie of service members, their clear understanding of and commitment to their mission, or even “the American constitutional tradition of a politically neutral military establishment under civilian control.”
Greer, 424 U.S. at 839, 96 S.Ct. 1211. Bryant's advertisements posed just such a danger. The exclusion in § 4.11 of political advertising, and of Bryant's advertisements in particular, is therefore reasonable.
See id. at 831 & n. 2, 839–40, 96 S.Ct. 1211 (upholding regulations barring “[d]emonstrations, ... political speeches and similar activities” on military base and authorizing commander to exclude “publication [that] presents a clear danger to the loyalty, discipline, or morale of troops at [the] installation”);
cf. Lehman, 418 U.S. at 299–300, 304, 94 S.Ct. 2714 (plurality) (transit system's ban on “political advertising” held reasonable because political advertisements could subject riders to “blare of political propaganda” and create “lurking doubts about favoritism”).