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

Heading: The Least Restrictive Means Issue

Text: 28 The government is empowered to regulate the content of constitutionally protected speech in order to promote a compelling interest if it chooses the least restrictive means to further the articulated interest. Sable, 492 U.S. at 126, 109 S.Ct. at 2836. The compelling interest in protecting minors from the harms concededly generated by indecent telephone messages that may not be obscene by adult standards having been established, the question of the least restrictive means of achieving the compelling interest must be resolved. It is not enough to show that the government's ends are compelling; the means must be carefully tailored to achieve those ends. Id. Accordingly, in order for appellees to prevail, it must be determined that there are other approaches less restrictive than the Helms Amendment but just as effective in achieving its goal of denying access by minors to indecent dial-a-porn messages. The district court determined that New York's current voluntary blocking system is adequately protective of children and is less restrictive than either a pre-subscription requirement or an independent billing mechanism. 742 F.Supp. at 1264. We disagree. 29 Under voluntary blocking, a system approved by the New York Public Service Commission, any subscriber can have sexually explicit telephone communications centrally blocked by contacting the telephone company and requesting such a service, which is free of charge. Central blocking is accomplished when the telephone company, having assigned a three digit prefix to certain types of providers, blocks a household's access to all numbers with that prefix. A parent who receives a bill from the telephone company for dial-a-porn messages thereby receives notice that calls are being made by a child in the household and may request central blocking. 30 It seems to us that voluntary blocking would not even come close to eliminating as much of the access of children to dial-a-porn billed by the telephone company as would the presubscription requirement of the Helms Amendment. Blocking has been available for over two years in the New York area, but only four percent of the 4.6 million residential telephone lines in the area having access to the 970 prefix assigned by the telephone company for adult messages have been blocked. According to an Awareness Study, half of the residential households in New York are not aware of either the availability of dial-a-porn or of blocking. Moreover, in the opinion of a psychiatrist who testified at the preliminary injunction hearing, a child may have suffered serious psychological damage from contact with dial-a-porn before the child's parents become aware from a monthly telephone bill that there has been access to an indecent message. Common sense dictates that a presubscription requirement, like requirements for payment by credit card before a message is transmitted, for use of an authorized access or identification card before transmission, and for a descrambling device for scrambled messages, is more likely to achieve the goal sought than blocking after one or more occasions of access. It always is more effective to lock the barn before the horse is stolen. 31 The district court found that pre-subscription would be more restrictive on listeners and [providers] than the current voluntary blocking system in place in New York after noting the added expense and loss of customers that the providers would sustain by reason of this billing method. 742 F.Supp. at 1263-64. Prepayment and credit card billing are subject to the same economically inhibiting factors as presubscription, according to the district court, which essentially agree[d] with the government's expert 'that N.Y. Tel. is generally the most profitable billing method available for dial-a-porn companies.'  Id. at 1264. With respect to independent billing by the providers, the district court concluded that the costs thereof would to some extent reduce the number of [providers], make the unit calls more costly, and to some extent exclude callers. Id. (footnote omitted). All of this is to say that, for those who furnish dial-a-porn messages, voluntary blocking is the least economically restrictive and therefore the most desirable means of regulation. 32 The error of the district court lies in focusing on means, when the focus should be on goals as well as means. The goal here is to prevent access to indecent messages by children. The means must be effective in achieving the goal. Even if voluntary blocking is assumed to be the least restrictive means of accomplishing the congressional purpose, it clearly is not an effective means. To the extent that the district court found that voluntary blocking was not ineffective, 742 F.Supp. at 1266, its finding was clearly erroneous. Voluntary blocking simply does not do the job of shielding minors from dial-a-porn. 33 We note that in brushing aside the testimony of Dr. Dietz that even minimal exposure to indecent messages can have damaging psychological effects on children, who would be able to gain access before voluntary blocking could be effectuated, the district court found only that the testimony failed to demonstrate that more than 'a few of the most enterprising and disobedient young people [can or are] manag[ing] to secure access to such [indecent telephone] messages,' despite the presence of a voluntary blocking scheme. Id. (quoting Sable, 492 U.S. at 130, 109 S.Ct. at 2838) (bracketed material in American Information Enterprises ). We think that the testimony has considerably more significance. It demonstrated the ineffectiveness of voluntary blocking; the effectiveness of presubscription as a means of preventing access by minors before any harm can be done; and the importance of the congressional goal. As to the district court's reference to disobedient young people, parents and others ... who have th[e] primary responsibility for children's well-being are entitled to the support of laws designed to aid discharge of that responsibility. Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629, 639, 88 S.Ct. 1274, 1280, 20 L.Ed.2d 195 (1968). The Helms Amendment is such a law, narrowly tailored to serve [a compelling] interest. Boos v. Barry, 485 U.S. 312, 324, 108 S.Ct. 1157, 1165, 99 L.Ed.2d 333 (1988).