First Amendment: Disconnecting Dial-a-Porn: Section 223(b)'s Two Pronged Challenge to First Amendment Rights

• NCJ Number: 123622
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 80 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1990) Pages: 968-995
• Author(s): S D Rubens
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This analysis of the United State's Supreme Court's 1989 decision in a case involving telephone pornography argues that the court majority erred in omitting the interest of parents in raising their children from its analysis of the balance of interests and thereby may help permit future governmental usurpations of the parent's role.

Abstract

In Sable Communications of Cal. v. FCC, the Court examined the constitutionality of a Federal law prohibiting indecent telephone communications. In a two-pronged decision, the Court held that the prohibition of indecency violated the First Amendment by preventing adults from seeing, hearing, or doing that which may be inappropriate for children. The Court correctly used a definitional approach by declining to create intermediate categories of protected speech, thereby maintaining an important safeguard of First Amendment Rights. However, the court ignored the interest of parents in the control and upbringing of their children. In addition, the Court's decision to uphold the prohibition of obscene telephone communications effectively established a national standard of obscenity. The result is that dial-a-porn companies must choose between making their messages acceptable to the least tolerant communities or risking prosecution and possible bankruptcy. 238 footnotes.