In the case of In re R. M. J., 1981, the U.S Supreme Court dealt with issues related to commercial speech and professional advertising by attorneys. The Missouri Bar had disciplined attorney R.M.J for violating rules on professional conduct concerning lawyer advertisements, which were revised after a previous ruling in Bates v State Bar of Arizona that allowed lawyers to advertise their services under First Amendment protection. However, these revisions still imposed restrictions on how lawyers could advertise their services. R.M.J challenged this disciplinary action arguing that it violated his First Amendment rights as his mailings were not misleading or deceptive but merely informative about his availability and areas of practice. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of R.M.J stating that while states have significant interest in maintaining standards among licensed professionals including preventing deceptive or misleading ads, any restriction must be narrowly drawn to prevent only such harm without completely prohibiting truthful and non-deceptive advertisements. Therefore, disciplining an attorney for simply providing accurate information about his legal services was found inconsistent with the principles set forth by Bates decision.

In the dissenting opinion for In re R.M.J., Justice Blackmun argued that the majority's decision was too lenient on restrictions related to attorney advertising. He believed that states should have more authority in regulating professional conduct, including lawyer advertisements. The justice felt that the court had failed to recognize a state's interest in maintaining high standards of professionalism within its legal community and protecting consumers from potentially misleading information. He also expressed concern about potential negative impacts on public perception of the legal profession due to unrestricted advertising practices. His view was essentially rooted in preserving dignity and integrity of law practice, which he feared could be compromised by commercialization through unregulated advertisement.