All of which should have set off alarm bells when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit boldly declared last March that the regulation of “professionals’…direct, personalized speech with clients” received no First Amendment scrutiny whatsoever.
Fortunately, that aberrant holding may not stand much longer. This Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court will meet to decide whether to review the 11th Circuit’s ruling. If it takes the case — Locke v. Shore — it will be the Court’s first opportunity in 25 years to provide much-needed guidance on the First Amendment status of “occupational speech,” a murky area of the law that has grown increasingly important as more and more people earn their living by selling their speech.
