Bland

Plaintiffs appeal the grant of summary judgment dismissing their action against the Commissioners of the California Public Utilities Commission and the dismissal on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion of their action against the Attorney General of California. Plaintiffs’ action challenges on First Amendment grounds two California statutes that regulate Automatic Dialing and Announcing Devices (“ADADs”), machines that dial telephone numbers and deliver prerecorded messages. We affirm both decisions of the district court, but affirm the dismissal of the action against the Attorney General on different grounds from those relied on by the district court.

I. FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

William Bland used ADADs to advertise his carpet cleaning services. Bland’s ADADs provoked consumer complaints to the telephone company. One telephone user reported he could not terminate calls from Bland’s ADADs: “I hung up my telephone several times, but the recording continued and tied up my fine for at least a couple of minutes.” This consumer also complained that Bland’s ADADs were extremely misleading as to the identity of the calling party. In May 1994, the telephone company notified Bland that his use of…