Edenfield v. Fane, 507 U.S. 761, 5 (1993)

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Cite as: 507 U. S. 761 (1993)

Opinion of the Court

licits clients "is obviously in need of business and may be willing to bend the rules." App. 23. In Dooner's view, "[i]f [a CPA] has solicited the client he will be beholden to him." Id., at 19. Dooner also suggested that the ban was needed to prevent "overreaching and vexatious conduct by the CPA." Id., at 23.

The District Court gave summary judgment to Fane and enjoined enforcement of the rule "as it is applied to CPA's who seek clients through in-person, direct, uninvited solicitation in the business context." Civ. Case No. 88-40264-MNP (ND Fla., Sept. 13, 1990), App. 88. A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed. 945 F. 2d 1514 (1991).

We granted certiorari, 504 U. S. 940 (1992), and now

affirm.

II

In soliciting potential clients, Fane seeks to communicate no more than truthful, nondeceptive information proposing a lawful commercial transaction. We need not parse Fane's proposed communications to see if some parts are entitled to greater protection than the solicitation itself. This case comes to us testing the solicitation, nothing more. That is what the State prohibits and Fane proposes.

Whatever ambiguities may exist at the margins of the category of commercial speech, see, e. g., Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Comm'n on Human Relations, 413 U. S. 376, 384-388 (1973), it is clear that this type of personal solicitation is commercial expression to which the protections of the First Amendment apply. E. g., Virginia State Bd. of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., 425 U. S. 748, 762 (1976). While we did uphold a ban on in-person solicitation by lawyers in Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Assn., 436 U. S. 447 (1978), that opinion did not hold that all personal solicitation is without First Amendment protection. See id., at 457. There are, no doubt, detrimental aspects to personal commercial solicitation in certain circumstances,

765

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