Information Providers' Coalition for Defense of the First Amendment v. Federal Communications Commission

In this petition for review of a Report and Order of the Federal Communications Commission (“Commission” or “FCC”), we revisit continued Congressional efforts to prevent minors from using telephone lines to gain access to “dial-a-porn” programs. The petitioner has challenged the 1989 amendment to the Communications Act, known as the Helms Amendment, 47 U.S.C. §§ 223 (b), et seq., and the FCC’s Report and Order and the regulations promulgated thereunder, 47 C.F.R. § 64.201 (1990), as violative of the first and fifth amendments to the United States Constitution.

The 1989 Congressional action responded to the decision in Sable Communications of Cal., Inc. v. FCC, 492 U.S. 115 , 109 S.Ct. 2829 , 106 L.Ed.2d 93 (1989), which held a prior version of the Act unconstitutionally overbroad. Other questions are presented, but the major issue for decision is whether reverse blocking of telephone access meets the Court’s requirement of a “carefully tailored” or “narrowly tailored effort to serve the compelling interest of preventing *869 minors from being exposed to indecent telephone messages.” Sable, 492 U.S. at 126, 131 , 109 S.Ct. at 2836, 2839 . The petitioners contend that only central…