This morning U.S. District Court Judge James Robart denied (.pdf) Dex’s request to halt Seattle’s yellow pages opt-out service for pretty much the same reasons it denied it a preliminary injunction the first time around.
The judge ruled again, that Dex, et al. “have failed to establish that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction or that an injunction would be in the public interest.”
Today is the last day for Seattle to opt out of getting Dex yellow pages online at the city-enforced site in order to beat its June delivery date. Dex will be banned from delivering phone books to anyone on the city’s opt-out list and fined for violations. So it’s no surprise that Dex, along with the other yellow pages publishers in the city, made a last-ditch effort to prevent that.
“It’s hardly a surprise,” says Kimberly Mills, spokesperson for the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, of the judge’s decision. The success of Seattle’s yellow pages legislation—more than 23,000 homes and businesses have already opted out of over 150,000 yellow pages in the first 11 days of Seattle’s new registry, preventing more than 225 tons of waste from having to be recycled—has spurred other cities into action.
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors took the first step toward passing legislation to stop unwanted yellow pages in a 10-1 vote May 10 that would restrict delivery to only those who asked for the books. Chicago is also considering similar legislation. “Seattle has provided a blueprint for other municipalities and I intend to introduce something similar for Chicago very soon,” says Chicago First Ward Alderman Proco Joe Moreno in a statement. “The forces fighting against this legislation need to recognize that it’s time for them to evolve and allow people a choice over what they receive. “
The yellow pages publishers original lawsuit against the City of Seattle’s opt-out ordinance, which claims that the ordinance is a violation of their free speech rights, is still pending.
At my new digs, I now get the SF Examiner (imagine if the PI, instead of turning to the web, turned into sort of a lite version of the NY Post) Sunday edition delivered, unrequested, to my front door.
Thankfully, I’m in need of newspaper for cleaning and covering the floor during projects, but I wonder how an unrequested newspaper distinguishes itself in a way it’s not subject to this ban.
Super congratulations to Mike O’Brien and his staff.
I still can’t understand how my requesting that Yellow Pages not be delivered to my home, how that impairs any corporation’s First Amendment speech rights.
Can someone explain what I’m missing? Or am I just getting dull in my old age.
Hey, what happens if they DO deliver phone books to my doorstep after I’ve opted out? Who I gonna call?
@1, I was getting the Wall Street Journal every day for months, without asking for it. It took at least 3 phone calls to get it to stop.
s’ok to pat my genitals at airports in defiance of right to freedom from unreasonable searches so long as the gov keeps phonebooks off my doorstep. yay freedom.
So Mike O’Brien’s people came up with this, yeah? But who specifically sketched out the plan that so far seems legally untouchable?
Seriously, Riya, track that down? That guy or gal deserves a beer or a cupcake or something for coming up with something if they did that may take down an industry.
@# 6, I asked the Seattle City Attorney’s office that, and spokesperson Kimberly Mills says, “We don’t identify specific attorneys who work on legislation for council. In this case attorneys worked with our clients, SPU, as well as Councilman O’Brien.”