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Interview With Kevin Grady

Aired September 29, 2003 - 15:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us right here in Atlanta is Kevin Grady who is an antitrust attorney with Alston and Bird, big law firm here in Atlanta. Thanks for being with us.
(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's back up a little bit on just some events for today. The FCC Commissioner Michael Powell indicating that he's going to press forward. His agency will press forward and enforce fines in all of this, regardless of what the FTC is doing right now, regardless of what the federal judges are doing. Does he have that authority?

KEVIN GRADY, ANTITRUST ATTORNEY: There's a little bit of overlapping jurisdiction between the FCC and FTC on this do-not-call issue. And what I think he's responding to, there's another lawsuit that hasn't really been talked about that much. And that was one where the marketers tried to get the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to enjoin the FCC from enforcing its rules. And by enforcing it's rules, the FCC is basically deferred to the FTC on the do-not-call list.

So when the court refused to enjoin the FCC, it set it down for expedited hearing. Let me cut right to the chase. The real issue here is that Tenth Circuit Court of appeal in Denver is going to be where the action is in terms of the force-ability of the do-not-call list.

O'BRIEN: All right. So I think we got a little deep under the legalhood for a moment.

GRADY: Sure.

O'BRIEN: The bottom line is, we're talking about here it's coming down to a First Amendment issue.

GRADY: That's one of the issues.

O'BRIEN: What are the rights of free speech here that a marketer might have, vis-a-vis if rights of a charity or political organization? There's been a delineation there, correct?

GRADY: Yes, that's the key issue. If you're a Constitutional law professor in an American law school you're in hog heaven right now because you can talk about those issues until the cows come home.

And one of the things here that is so key is whether the government is able to protect consumers in the privacy of their own home from being bombarded by calls. That's one of -- the First Amendment issue. It's a conflict, Miles. Let me put it this way, a conflict between the right of tell marketers to express themselves versus the right of American citizens to be let alone and (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

O'BRIEN: And there is a Catch-22 in here and there's legal precedent on both sides that would say, OK, if you ban the telemarketers and add to them the charitable organizations and the political groups, you would be infringing upon First Amendment rights, correct?

GRADY: The Supreme Court in series of cases -- and it's not the clearest area of law -- in a series of cases have drawn a distinction between the rights of free speech for religious organizations, for non-profit organizations, for political speech versus commercial speech.

And again, trying to simplify it, oversimplify it, the commercial speech is entitled a less protection under the First Amendment than political or religious or non-profit speech.

O'BRIEN: The federal court system doesn't really give a wit as to what the public feels, right?

GRADY: Miles, this is the great example for the American people to understand the power of presidential appointments. The judges who have been appointed by the presidents are going to affect the day-to- day lives for American people now in a way that most people haven't realized until now.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, Mr. Grady, Kevin Grady, esquire, with the firm of Alston and Bird taking us through all of the Constitutional issues on the do-not-call list. Let's hope we get some peace some day soon. As always, a pleasure to have you drop by.

GRADY: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 29, 2003 - 15:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us right here in Atlanta is Kevin Grady who is an antitrust attorney with Alston and Bird, big law firm here in Atlanta. Thanks for being with us.
(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: First of all, let's back up a little bit on just some events for today. The FCC Commissioner Michael Powell indicating that he's going to press forward. His agency will press forward and enforce fines in all of this, regardless of what the FTC is doing right now, regardless of what the federal judges are doing. Does he have that authority?

KEVIN GRADY, ANTITRUST ATTORNEY: There's a little bit of overlapping jurisdiction between the FCC and FTC on this do-not-call issue. And what I think he's responding to, there's another lawsuit that hasn't really been talked about that much. And that was one where the marketers tried to get the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to enjoin the FCC from enforcing its rules. And by enforcing it's rules, the FCC is basically deferred to the FTC on the do-not-call list.

So when the court refused to enjoin the FCC, it set it down for expedited hearing. Let me cut right to the chase. The real issue here is that Tenth Circuit Court of appeal in Denver is going to be where the action is in terms of the force-ability of the do-not-call list.

O'BRIEN: All right. So I think we got a little deep under the legalhood for a moment.

GRADY: Sure.

O'BRIEN: The bottom line is, we're talking about here it's coming down to a First Amendment issue.

GRADY: That's one of the issues.

O'BRIEN: What are the rights of free speech here that a marketer might have, vis-a-vis if rights of a charity or political organization? There's been a delineation there, correct?

GRADY: Yes, that's the key issue. If you're a Constitutional law professor in an American law school you're in hog heaven right now because you can talk about those issues until the cows come home.

And one of the things here that is so key is whether the government is able to protect consumers in the privacy of their own home from being bombarded by calls. That's one of -- the First Amendment issue. It's a conflict, Miles. Let me put it this way, a conflict between the right of tell marketers to express themselves versus the right of American citizens to be let alone and (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

O'BRIEN: And there is a Catch-22 in here and there's legal precedent on both sides that would say, OK, if you ban the telemarketers and add to them the charitable organizations and the political groups, you would be infringing upon First Amendment rights, correct?

GRADY: The Supreme Court in series of cases -- and it's not the clearest area of law -- in a series of cases have drawn a distinction between the rights of free speech for religious organizations, for non-profit organizations, for political speech versus commercial speech.

And again, trying to simplify it, oversimplify it, the commercial speech is entitled a less protection under the First Amendment than political or religious or non-profit speech.

O'BRIEN: The federal court system doesn't really give a wit as to what the public feels, right?

GRADY: Miles, this is the great example for the American people to understand the power of presidential appointments. The judges who have been appointed by the presidents are going to affect the day-to- day lives for American people now in a way that most people haven't realized until now.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, Mr. Grady, Kevin Grady, esquire, with the firm of Alston and Bird taking us through all of the Constitutional issues on the do-not-call list. Let's hope we get some peace some day soon. As always, a pleasure to have you drop by.

GRADY: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com