Don't get me wrong. I hate telemarketers as much as the next guy -- probably more. I've got caller ID and the Telezapper, a device that's supposed to convince automated dialers your phone is disconnected. If I answer the phone and there's a tell-tale second or two of silence, I hang up immediately -- at the risk of missing calls from distracted friends or hanging up on my mother when she calls from Jerusalem.
Still, it seems to me that telemarketing is a nuisance that should be addressed by phone companies, which could prohibit come-ons to customers who don't want them, threatening to cut off service to offenders. If the good will of their customers is not sufficient motivation, they could charge a little extra for solicitation-free service -- or, alternatively, charge marketers to reach receptive households. The government could encourage such private solutions by removing regulatory barriers and fostering competition in local telephone service.
Instead, the Federal Communications Commission is promising to enforce the rules that Judge Nottingham stopped the FTC from implementing. That stance is undeniably popular, but it's a mystery why a plan that violated the First Amendment when the FTC tried it would be constitutional with the FCC in charge.
The popularity of this program does not reassure me. The same day Nottingham issued his ruling, almost every member of Congress voted to override another judge's determination, announced just two days before, that the FTC did not have statutory authority to establish the do-not-call registry. "Fifty million people can't be all wrong," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., declared.
I doubt that the 50 million or so people who signed up for the registry were expressing an opinion about whether the FTC's revised Telemarketing Sales Rules were authorized by the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act. But Schumer's sentiment is clear: Might makes right. If something annoys you, there ought to be a law. And if enough people share the feeling, there will be.