Court Opinion

ID: 9439174
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 06:24:05.52257+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:12.198244
License: Public Domain

RANDOLPH, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I do not agree with the government that § 223(a)(1)(c) “is a generally-applicable regulation directed at conduct.” Brief for Appellee at 18. A hang-up call could, I suppose, be characterized as conduct only. So too perhaps calls consisting only of a grunt or a moan. Nonetheless, in general, telephones are devices for communicating and this statute regulates how telephones may be used for that purpose. The acts of picking up the phone and dialing are conduct. The act of speaking on the phone is also a form of conduct but it still is “speech.” Whether the caller is exercising his “freedom of speech” depends on what he says and why. A blackmail attempt, a bomb threat, a fraudulent promise, a kidnapper’s demands — all are communications, but none are protected by the First Amendment. Partly this is because of history; partly it is because of the consequences of such communications. To characterize anonymous telephone calls intended to annoy or harass as “conduct” rather than speech is to confuse the analysis.