WASHINGTON — A secretly recorded telephone conversation had a union negotiator seeming to threaten a bombing attack on school board members. Two local radio stations played the tape over the air. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court entered the case.
The justices heard arguments on the constitutionality of state and federal wiretap laws that held a local activist, a talk show host and the radio stations liable for airing the conversation. Their finding could define limits on telephone privacy and determine when news organizations may broadcast or print private phone conversations.
The case involved a cellular telephone conversation in which a teachers' union negotiator said about school board members, "We're gonna have to go to their homes . . . to blow off their front porches." The taped conversation was turned over to the radio show host and played on the air.
Laws at issue in the Supreme Court case prohibit disclosing contents of telephone calls that are illegally intercepted.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said there is "simply no precedent in the history of this court" for isolating certain types of speech, regardless of its content, and subjecting it to regulation.
He said the laws restricting the use of wiretapped conversations have the effect of "suppressing speech that is valuable to the public."
Justice Stephen Breyer retorted that those laws preserve the privacy and dignity of individuals. And Justice Antonin Scalia said knowing that his private conversations could be published "inhibits my speech."
The conversation occurred during a labor dispute in Wyoming, Pa., a community between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
The conversation between Gloria Bartnicki and Anthony Kane Jr. was intercepted and recorded onto a cassette tape by someone whose identity is unknown and who placed it in the mailbox of Jack Yocum, who led a group opposed to the teacher union's wage proposals.
Yocum gave a copy of the tape to the talk show host, Frederick Vopper, who played the conversation in its entirety on his show in September 1993. The show was aired by area stations WILK and WGBI.
Bartnicki and Kane sued Yocum, Vopper and the radio stations under both the state and federal laws for having used and disclosed the tape of their intercepted phone conversation.
In laying out the government's position, U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman told the justices the ban was designed to protect "the ability to speak in an uninhibited and confidential fashion."
But Thomas Goldstein, who represented Yocum, said, "No one has shown that this is a serious problem."
Lower courts have split on the issue.
In the Yocum case, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the federal and Pennsylvania laws unconstitutional. But the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the federal law in a lawsuit filed by Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, against Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.
Boehner accused McDermott of disclosing contents of a secretly recorded phone call in which then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other House leaders discussed strategy involving the announcement of an ethics finding against Gingrich.
Only seven states do not have wiretapping laws, according to the appeals court in the District of Columbia: Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont and Washington.
The cases are Bartnicki vs. Vopper, 99-1687, and U.S. vs. Vopper, 99-1728.
On the Net: For the Supreme Court web site: www.supremecourtus.gov