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There are some classes of speech, and equivalents of speech (like wearing a
T-shirt) that are so protected, but commercial speech is not among them. You
cannot lawfully counsel more than so many people to buy or sell a certain stock,
for example, without complying with the Federal law, and maybe state laws as
well. Free speech arguments have been rejected almost uniformly when it comes to
commercial speech.
You can have all the opinions you wish but you cannot advise people on legal
matters without complying with the law. Requiring me to take a bar exam and meet
other qualifications before inflicting my opinions on legal matters on others is
acccepted law.
There is no reason why these folks should not have to submit to regulation. If
you want to trade for a living, and hurt no one but yourself, fine. But if you
want to send out faxes, newsletters, e-mails, communicate your secret methods to
others for money, then some form of registration should not be objectionable,
except to crooks. Having used Omega products for some years, I wouldn't think
they would need to register, but having seen their ads, and been to their
seminars, I think maybe it would be a good idea if they did, 'cause they have
definitely slipped into the "snake oil" business.
Jim Allen
ManningSto@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Requiring registration before expressing an opinion is called prior
> constraint, a violation of the 1st amendment.
> We all know that frauds exist - but has registration helped? I think not,
> when you realize that the CFTC refused the recommendation to make CTAs take a
> basic futures examination.
> Registration does not protect the public but opens the door for intrusion and
> opening up subscriber lists of newsletter publishers to the CFTC.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Manning Stoller
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