Opinion ID: 564965
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Prior Restraint Issue

Text: 34 In deciding that there is a likelihood that appellees will succeed on their claims that the Helms Amendment violates the First and Fifth amendments by providing a prior restraint without adequate procedural safeguards, the district court observed that [s]ection 223(c)(1) requires common carriers to categorize, as either indecent or decent, the content of speech made by [providers] that use a carrier's billing systems. 742 F.Supp. at 1271 (footnote omitted). According to the district court, the effect of this requirement and of the consequent imposition of a system of pre-subscription or independent billing ... is to restrict the future communication of [protected] speech. Id. at 1272. 35 The district court erred in concluding that the statute requires carriers to classify which messages are indecent. The statute actually provides that the dial-a-porn provider must inform the telephone company that the message is indecent and therefore covered by the statute, in order to activate the presubscription provision. See 47 U.S.C. Sec. 223(c)(2)(B)(i). This indeed is the interpretation of the FCC, the agency charged, as previously noted, with the enforcement of the statute. See FCC Report and Order, p 36. The schemes that have been invalidated by the Supreme Court as prior restraints on speech had this in common: they gave public officials the power to deny use of a forum in advance of actual expression. Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546, 553, 95 S.Ct. 1239, 1244, 43 L.Ed.2d 448 (1975); see Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 795 n. 5, 109 S.Ct. 2746, 2756 n. 5, 105 L.Ed.2d 661 (1989). Only where the government imposes a requirement of advance approval or seeks to enjoin speech can there be prior restraint. See, e.g., New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 91 S.Ct. 2140, 29 L.Ed.2d 822 (1971). That is not the case here. The Helms Amendment requires no one except dial-a-porn providers to classify their messages, and therefore it cannot be said to operate as a prior restraint on speech. The carriers themselves are not state actors but private companies. See Information Providers' Coalition, 928 F.2d at 877. 36 After examining the rules of the New York Public Service Commission, the district court concluded that, but for the Helms Amendment, presubscription and independent billing would be prohibited and thus that any decision by a carrier in New York to restrict indecent telephone speech through imposing pre-subscription or independent billing will be the products of the Helm Amendment and therefore are attributable to that statute and not private action. 742 F.Supp. at 1273. A finding of state action on this basis is unwarranted. The Helms Amendment does not require the telephone company to implement the presubscription method of billing, unless the company voluntarily has chosen to provide billing services for providers. The Public Service Commission has adopted no rule requiring the telephone company to provide billing and collection services. The telephone company does not act under governmental compulsion either when it undertakes or refuses to undertake dial-a-porn billing. Accordingly, it cannot be a state actor when it implements a presubscription billing system. See Carlin Comms., Inc. v. Mountain States Tel. & Tel. Co., 827 F.2d 1291, 1297 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1029, 108 S.Ct. 1586, 99 L.Ed.2d 901 (1988); Carlin Comms., Inc. v. Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co., 802 F.2d 1352, 1357-61 (11th Cir.1986). 37 Finally, even if the telephone company were seen as a state actor, the Helms Amendment cannot be said to operate as a prior restraint on speech. There is no restraint of any kind on adults who seek access to dial-a-porn. A requirement that one desiring access make an advance request therefor simply does not constitute a prior restraint. The telephone company has no right to review the content of dial-a-porn messages. The Helms Amendment requires only that subscribers state in advance their desire to obtain such messages.