Opinion ID: 416921
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: CBBB's Views On Reasonable Spending Are A Protected Statement Of Opinion

Text: 12 The district court ruled the following excerpt from the CBBB's August 1981 Report to be a constitutionally-protected statement of opinion: 13 The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) does not meet the provision of the CBBB Standards for Charitable Solicitations which calls for spending a reasonable percentage of total income on program services, as distinct from fund raising and administration. 14 The Foundation challenges this ruling on the grounds that the comment is a statement of fact, not of opinion. It seems to the court that what the NFCR is ultimately challenging is the Council's benchmark of 50 percent as the minimum percentage of total income which a charity should spend on its program services. In the court's view, that percentage which constitutes a reasonable percentage of total income spent on program services is merely an opinion, over which the parties disagree, and not a defamatory false statement of fact. 1 Since the Supreme Court has specifically recognized that the characterization of a person's conduct as reasonable or unreasonable is a protected statement of opinion, Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association v. Bresler, 398 U.S. 6, 90 S.Ct. 1537, 26 L.Ed.2d 6 (1970), this ruling by the district court must be affirmed. 15