Bland

Bland v. Fessler

Good Law
88 F.3d 729·1996 WL 363612
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitJuly 2, 1996No. 95-55522California5,468 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

Fletcher, J.

ORDER

The opinion filed April 1, 1996, Slip op. 3923, is withdrawn.

OPINION

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.

*731 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 line 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 ADADs violated California law and threatened to disconnect his telephones if he didn’t…

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