CCL President Robert S. Peck wrote to members of the Louisiana Legislature that a proposed advertising law had not corrected problems with a statute approved last year but vetoed by the governor. 

     Last year, legislators attempted to prohibit certain statements and logos in lawyer advertising about drug and medical device cases, while adding a variety of disclaimers. Peck testified before the Senate Commerce Committee that the proposal ran afoul of the First Amendment as a near-clone of a West Virginia law that a federal court had enjoined and subsequently declared unconstitutional. The bill also intruded on regulatory authority that the Louisiana Constitution assigend to the state supreme court, which was the basis for the veto by Gov. John Bel Edwards.

     Recently, a similar bill was introduced that attempts to regulate all advertising of that type, rather than be specifically aimed at lawyers, in an apparent attempt to avoid the basis for last year's gubernatorial veto. However, because First Amendment law requires a state to identify a real problem an demonstrate that the regulatory approach it adopts is both narrowly tailored and likely to be effective, the focus on lawyers remains its apparent, even if unspoken, objective. Yet, the problems that sponsors claim exist have nothing to do with the offer of legal services, making it impossible to justify the proposal.

     Another change was to weaken the prior bill's prohibition on truthful speech about a drug or medical device's recall, yet Peck's letter makes clear that the change does not solve the bill's constitutional problems.