Supreme Court of California

Corporation's allegedly false statements, directed by a commercial speaker to a commercial audience and making representations about the corporation's business operations for the purpose of promoting its sales, are commercial speech for purposes of applying state laws barring false and misleading commercial messages.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/02/2002
• Published 05/02/2002

Judges

• KENNARD, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
•  Law Offices of Paul R. Hoeber, Paul R. Hoeber;  Bushnell, Caplan & Fielding, Alan M. Caplan, Philip Neumark, Roderick P. Bushnell, San Francisco;  Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, William S. Lerach, Patrick J. Coughlin,  Albert H. Meyerhoff, Frank J. Janecek, Jr., and Patrick W. Daniels, San Diego, for Plaintiff and Appellant., Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Richard M. Frank, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Herschel T. Elkins and Louis Verdugo, Assistant Attorneys General, Ronald A. Reiter, Phyllis Cheng and Michele R. Van Gelderen, Deputy Attorneys General, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant., Law Offices of Carroll & Scully, Charles P. Scully II and Donald C. Carroll, San Francisco, for California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant., Aaron Isherwood, San Francisco, for the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense and California Certified Organic Farmers as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, David J. Brown, James N. Penrod and Robert P. Varian, San Francisco, for Defendants and Respondents., Deborah J. La Fetra and Mark T. Gallagher for Pacific Legal Foundation as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Los Angeles, Steven G. Brody;  Preuss Shanagher Zvoleff & Zimmer and Alan J. Lazarus, San Francisco, for Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Fred J. Hiestand, Sacramento, for the Civil Justice Association of California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Ann Brick, San Francisco, for American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Inc., as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents.