Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 27, 1993 TAG: 9304270032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The 8-1 decision struck down a Florida ban on such uninvited solicitations by CPAs, ruling that it violated their free-speech rights.
The court said only three other states - Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas - impose a blanket ban on CPA solicitations. The new ruling cast grave constitutional doubt on those laws as well.
In past decisions, the court has allowed states to ban in-person soliciting and direct-mail advertising by lawyers. A 1978 ruling on lawyer solicitations involved an Ohio lawyer who visited the hospital room of an accident victim.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court Monday that an accountant's direct solicitation "poses none of the same dangers."
"Unlike a lawyer, a CPA is not a professional trained in the art of persuasion," Kennedy said. "The typical client of a CPA is far less susceptible to manipulation than the young accident victim."
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor dissented, saying, "I see no constitutional difference between a rule prohibiting in-person solicitation by attorneys and a rule prohibiting in-person solicitation by certified public accountants."
In other matters, the court:
Reinstated the fraud convictions of two savings-and-loan executives, ruling, 6-3, they are not entitled to a new trial just because alternate jurors wrongly were allowed to watch the jury's deliberations.
Reinstated a sexual-harassment lawsuit in which a neurologist says she was treated unfairly after resisting the advances of her boss at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
Agreed to decide in a Nevada case whether prosecutors must prove that people charged with evading federal laws requiring the reporting of currency transfers over $10,000 knew they were committing a crime.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.