Opinion ID: 2103926
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Heading: Attorney Advertising and the First Amendment

Text: Since Virginia Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U.S. 748, 96 S.Ct. 1817, 48 L.Ed.2d 346 (1976), the United States Supreme Court has accorded First Amendment protection to commercial speech, and since Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350, 97 S.Ct. 2691, 53 L.Ed.2d 810 (1977), the Court has extended this protection to attorney advertising. The Court has given substance to the Bates holding through a series of attorney advertising commercial speech cases over the past quarter century. See generally Mason v. Florida Bar, 208 F.3d 952 (11th Cir.2000) (a recent court of appeals case discussing this body of Supreme Court case law); Ficker v. Curran, 119 F.3d 1150 (4th Cir.1997) (same). In the most recent attorney advertising case the Court stated, It is now well established that lawyer advertising is commercial speech, and as such, is accorded a measure of First Amendment protection. Florida Bar v. Went For It, Inc., 515 U.S. 618, 623, 115 S.Ct. 2371, 2375, 132 L.Ed.2d 541 (1995). In the case before us we must determine how much protection, and how to apply that level of protection when evaluating the constitutionality of DR 2-101(C)(3). We have never before addressed lawyer advertising, but we have squarely addressed a similar regulation of another profession. In Douglas v. State, 921 S.W.2d 180 (1996), we upheld the constitutionality of an administrative rule requiring dentists who are not certified specialists but who advertise that they offer specialty services like orthodontics to disclose that their services are being provided by a general dentist. Douglas is, of course, similar to the case before us, all the more so because the case law does not make distinctions among the professions. For example, in Ibanez v. Florida Dep't of Bus. & Prof'l Regulation, 512 U.S. 136, 114 S.Ct. 2084, 129 L.Ed.2d 118 (1994), the United States Supreme Court relied heavily on attorney advertising cases although the regulation before it involved advertising by Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and Certified Financial Planners. See also Edenfield v. Fane, 507 U.S. 761, 113 S.Ct. 1792, 123 L.Ed.2d 543 (1993) (involving the regulation of CPAs). Our opinion in Douglas also relied heavily on attorney advertising cases. Since the commercial speech standards recently discussed in Douglas apply here, and since the United States Supreme Court has not decided a regulation of professions commercial speech case after Douglas , we find that case to be highly relevant authority. The validity of commercial speech regulations is subject to what has been termed intermediateas opposed to strictscrutiny, according to a test announced in Central Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Public Serv. Comm'n, 447 U.S. 557, 100 S.Ct. 2343, 65 L.Ed.2d 341 (1980). See Douglas, 921 S.W.2d at 184 (discussing Central Hudson ). The test is as follows: For commercial speech to come within that provision [the First Amendment], it at least must concern lawful activity and not be misleading. Next, we must ask whether the asserted government interest is substantial. If both inquiries yield positive answers, we must determine whether the regulation directly advances the government interest asserted, and whether it is not more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest. Central Hudson, 447 U.S. at 566, 100 S.Ct. at 2351. This test is used to analyze the validity of regulations that prohibit or limit commercial speech. See, e.g., Greater New Orleans Broad. Ass'n, Inc. v. United States, 527 U.S. 173, 119 S.Ct. 1923, 144 L.Ed.2d 161 (1999) (striking down a federal regulation prohibiting broadcast advertisements of private casino gambling where such gambling was legal); Florida Bar, 515 U.S. 618, 115 S.Ct. 2371, 132 L.Ed.2d 541 (upholding a Florida regulation prohibiting targeted direct-mail solicitation of accident victims and their relatives for thirty days following an accident); 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, 517 U.S. 484, 116 S.Ct. 1495, 134 L.Ed.2d 711 (1996) (striking down a Rhode Island prohibition on advertisements that provided accurate information about the retail prices of alcoholic beverages); Ibanez, 512 U.S. 136, 114 S.Ct. 2084, 129 L.Ed.2d 118 (reversing the Florida Board of Accountancy's reprimand of an attorney who truthfully advertised that she was a CPA and a Certified Financial Planner); Peel v. Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Comm'n, 496 U.S. 91, 110 S.Ct. 2281, 110 L.Ed.2d 83 (1990) (reversing the Illinois Supreme Court's censure of an attorney whose professional letterhead truthfully advertised that he was certified as a civil trial specialist by a national organization). The regulation before us requires that whenever a lawyer advertises his services in a particular area of law for which certification is available in Tennessee, he must disclose in the ad whether he is certified. DR 2-101(C). Since Walker was not certified as a civil trial specialist (which then covered the area of divorce law) yet he specifically mentioned divorce law in his ads, the disciplinary rule mandates that his ads include the following language: Not certified as a civil trial specialist by the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization. DR 2-101(C)(3). This regulation does not prohibit or limit speech; instead it requires more speech by way of an explanatory disclaimer. The fact that the regulation requires disclosure rather than prohibition tends to make it less objectionable under the First Amendment. Recognizing that the bar retains the power to correct omissions that have the effect of presenting an inaccurate picture, the Court in Bates specifically noted that the preferred remedy is more disclosure, rather than less. Bates, 433 U.S. at 375, 97 S.Ct. at 2704-05. See also Peel, 496 U.S. at 110, 110 S.Ct. at 2292 (To the extent that potentially misleading statements of private certification or specialization could confuse consumers, a State might consider screening certifying organizations or requiring a disclaimer about the certifying organization or the standards of a specialty. ) (emphasis added). In Douglas we addressed the distinction between prohibition and disclosure. We discussed Zauderer v. Office of the Disciplinary Counsel, 471 U.S. 626, 105 S.Ct. 2265, 85 L.Ed.2d 652 (1985), in which the United States Supreme Court struck down an Ohio regulation prohibiting the use of illustrations in attorney ads, but upheld that state's regulation requiring an attorney who advertises her availability on a contingent-fee basis to disclose that clients are responsible for court costs. See Douglas, 921 S.W.2d at 185-86. We noted that the First Amendment analysis in Zauderer was more forgiving of disclosure-type regulations and we quoted from that decision at length, parts of which we again recite: Appellant, however, overlooks material differences between disclosure requirements and outright prohibitions on speech.... Ohio has not attempted to prevent attorneys from conveying information to the public; it has only required them to provide somewhat more information than they might otherwise be inclined to present.... Because the extension of First Amendment protection to commercial speech is justified principally by the value to consumers of the information such speech provides, appellant's constitutionally protected interest in not providing any particular factual information in his advertising is minimal.    We do not suggest that disclosure requirements do not implicate the advertiser's First Amendment rights at all. We recognize that unjustified or unduly burdensome disclosure requirements might offend the First Amendment by chilling protected commercial speech. But we hold that an advertiser's rights are adequately protected as long as disclosure requirements are reasonably related to the State's interest in preventing deception of consumers. Douglas, 921 S.W.2d at 186 (quoting Zauderer, 471 U.S. at 650-51, 105 S.Ct. at 2281-82 (internal citations omitted) (emphasis in last sentence added)). In Douglas a principal question was whether the United States Supreme Court repudiated this disclosure analysis in Ibanez . The petitioner in Douglas pointed to language in Ibanez to support that contention, but we held that Ibanez should be interpreted to harmonize rather than conflict with Zauderer . We therefore held that the disclosure requirement in Ibanez was unduly burdensome under the Zauderer standardas opposed to some newly announced constitutional standard. More important, we discerned that Ibanez 's central holding was that the state had failed to offer sufficient proof justifying its regulation. See Douglas, 921 S.W.2d at 188 ([I]t appears that the Court may have simply concluded that Ibanez was `not a disclaimer case,' and therefore focussed [sic] its attention on the lack of proof in the record.). Thus, under current lawas announced in Zauderer as long as the disclosure requirement is reasonably related to the state's interest in preventing deception of consumers, and not unduly burdensome, it should be upheld. Recent cases have also applied the less rigorous Zauderer standard when confronted with government regulations requiring disclosure of information. See, e.g., Commodity Trend Serv., Inc. v. Commodity Futures Trading Comm'n, 233 F.3d 981, 994 (7th Cir.2000) (The government can impose affirmative disclosures in commercial advertising if these are reasonably related to preventing the public from being deceived or misled.); Commodity Futures Trading Comm'n v. Vartuli, 228 F.3d 94, 108 (2d Cir.2000); Consolidated Cigar Corp. v. Reilly, 218 F.3d 30, 54 (1st Cir.2000). Of course, the state must always meet its burden of justifying the need for regulation in the first place. See Ibanez, 512 U.S. at 146-47, 114 S.Ct. at 2090-91; Mason, 208 F.3d at 958. The holding of Douglas simply recognizes that the Board's burden is lower than it would be had it prohibited Walker from advertising truthful information.