Dear Stupid Judge Owned by the Telemarketing Scum:
Yes, there’s a constitutional right to free speech. There is no constitutional right to make phone calls. There is no constitutional right to be heard.
If the first amendment protects telemarketers, aren’t the laws that limit the times during which telemarketers can make calls also unconstitutional?
And while people may have a constitutional right to say anything they like, they don’t have a constitutional right to call other people and say whatever they like, or those laws against obscene and harassing phone calls would also be unconstitutional.
You can’t have it both ways, now can you?
How about we do it this way. The telemarketing industry can offer free phone lines to people in return for the right to call those lines about anything at any time.
In the same respect, spammers can give free email accounts and internet access to people who sign up and say they want them in exchange for putting up with spam.
I’m sure there are people who would take them up on the offers.
Then the rest of us, who pay for our own phone lines and internet access and email accounts, wouldn’t get marketing calls or spam. Anybody who does use those resources we’ve paid for is automatically fined some standard amount—say $50 per unsolicited call or email.
That would be perfectly reasonable as far as I’m concerned. Anything less isn’t.
