Sable Communications v. FCC

Citation: Sable Comms. of Cal., Inc. v. Federal Comms. Comm'n, 492 U.S. 115 (1989).(full-text)

U.S. Supreme Court Proceedings
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held unconstitutional a federal statute prohibiting "indecent" commercial telephone messages &mdash; so-called "dial-a-porn" services. The Court said that if the government wants to protect children in this context, it must do so by technical means rather than by a total ban on the transmission of such messages, for although some limited numbers of children might be able to defeat these devices, a prohibition would have the impermissible effect of "limiting the content of adult telephone conversations to that which is suitable for children to hear."