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commercial speech

Federal appeals court upholds $37.6 million fine against infomercial pitchman

donal brown December 1, 2011

A federal appeals court found that a infomercial pitchman violated the terms of a 2004 Federal Trade Commission settlement over his ads, upholding a $37.6 million judgment. The court wrote that the government must protect consumers and could do so by imposing narrow restrictions on commercial speech without running afoul of the First Amendment. -db From Reuters, November 29, 2011, by Jonathan Stempel and Terry Baynes. Full story  

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Pharmaceutical industry: Free speech rights run up against limits on product claims

donal brown November 29, 2011

Merck agreed to pay $950 million to settle a suit over its claims for the painkiller Vioxx withdrawn from sales for increasing the chance of heart attack. But companies are aggressively challenging the government in its attempts to held industries accountable for the truthfulness of their promotions. -db From the Philadelphia Inquirer, November 27, 2011, by David Sel. Full story  

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Federal judge puts hold on mandatory graphic images for cigarette packages

donal brown November 8, 2011

A federal judge iced attempts of the Food And Drug Administration to require graphic images of the horrific results of smoking on all cigarette packages. The judge granted a temporary injunction on enforcing the new rule until the case is heard in federal court. The tobacco companies argue that the rule requires speech they don’t agree with and violates their First Amendment rights. -db From  the First Amendment Center, November 7, 2011, by David L

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A&A: Do trade publications have same speech protections as other journalists?

FAC September 28, 2011

Q: My company owns a website and private news source for a trade Industry. We are having concerns about our First Amendment protections. The website and news company is a business operation of our parent company. I would like to inquire about whether our direct ownership of the site conflicts with any First Amendment or journalism laws. For example, are we not protected by the same rights because the site is not an official news

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Tobacco industry tries again to block graphic labels on cigarette packs with First Amendment argument

donal brown September 15, 2011

The tobacco industry is chafing over the Food and Drug Administration’s mandate for graphic labels on cigarette packages, showing rotting teeth, gums, blackened lungs and the like. The industry is suing in federal court with the argument that the government is forcing them to present the government’s own anti-smoking message, a violation of the First Amendment. The problem with the industry’s stand is that they already lost that argument in federal court. -db From a

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