150
A
States may prohibit inherently misleading speech entirely. In re R. M. J., 455 U. S. 191, 203 (1982). In Peel v. Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Comm'n of Ill., 496 U. S. 91 (1990), we considered an attorney advertisement that proclaimed the lawyer to be a " 'Certified Civil Trial Specialist By the National Board of Trial Advocacy.' " See id., at 96. A majority of the Court concluded that this statement was not inherently misleading, although the discussion of this issue was joined by only four Justices. See id., at 100-106 (plurality opinion); id., at 111 (Marshall, J., concurring in judgment). The plurality reasoned that the certification was a statement of verifiable fact; that the certification had been conferred by a reputable organization that had applied objectively clear standards to determining the attorney's qualifications; and that consumers would not confuse the attorney's claim of certification as a specialist with formal state recognition.
Although the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., appears to be a reputable organization that applies objectively clear standards before conferring the CFP designation on accountants, the other factors relied on by the Peel plurality are not present in this case. First, it was important in Peel that "[t]he facts stated on [the attorney's] letterhead are true and verifiable." Id., at 100 (emphasis added); see also id., at 101 ("A lawyer's certification by [the recognizing organization] is a verifiable fact, as are the predicate requirements for that certification"). Of course, petitioner's recognition as a CFP can be verified—but only if the consumer knows where to call or write. Unlike the advertisement in Peel, petitioner's advertisements did not identify the organization that had conferred the certification. The average consumer has no way to verify the accuracy or value of petitioner's use of the CFP designation.
Related to this point is the fact that, in the absence of an identified conferring organization, the consumer is likely to
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