Ep. 248: Commercial speech and the First Amendment

Imagine the government forcing you to label your all-natural milk product as "imitation." 

Florida tried to make one dairy farm do just that, sparking a First Amendment question: Where's the line between a business's right to speak and protecting consumers from deception?

In this episode, we explore how far free speech protections go for commercial speech with:

• Justin Pearson, managing attorney (Institute for Justice)

• Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel (FIRE)

• Eugene Volokh, Thomas M. Siebel senior fellow (Hoover Institution, Stanford)

Timestamps: 

00:00 Intro

05:03 What exactly is commercial speech?

08:25 The evolution of commercial speech law

13:59 Early regulation of commercial speech

23:03 What is false or misleading commercial speech?

26:04 Controversial regulations of non-misleading commercial speech

37:35 Future of commercial speech regulations

Read the transcript: https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/so-speak-podcast-transcript-state-commercial-speech

Coming up: Live episode of So To Speak 

On Monday, August 11th at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, Nico will be speaking with former Treasury Secretary/Harvard University president, Larry Summers, and FIRE President/CEO, Greg Lukianoff. They will discuss the Trump administration's campaign against elite universities, including Harvard, what outcomes we can expect from that campaign, and what those outcomes might mean for free speech, academic freedom, and university independence.

Register for the livestream here: https://thefire-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/5817544039734/WN_AISudjopTvu2Yzk2pXkDYg.

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Show notes:

• Commercial speech: Should it still receive unique constitutional treatment? FIRE (2025)

• "In 1995, Pepsi offered a $33 million fighter jet for 7 million Pepsi Points. They thought it was a joke. But this 21-year-old took them seriously, found a loophole, and demanded the fighter jet for his 7 million Pepsi Points." So to Speak repost via X