San Francisco mobile phone warning law fails science, says judge
Posted in: Mobile & Wireless at 28/10/2011 19:39
Even the watered-down version couldn't pass muster. San Francisco's ordinance requiring retail outlets to inform consumers about the (alleged) effects of cellphone radiation has been blocked by a federal judge.
Upon passage, San Francisco's ordinance was challenged by industry trade group CTIA-The Wireless Association, which claimed the ordinance's requirement that retailers post messages about cell phone safety violated the First Amendment. San Francisco initially agreed to amend the ordinance after the CTIA filed suit, and made some changes, but they weren't enough. Judge William Alsup found that the ordinance failed the sniff test on both scientific and First Amendment grounds.
To read this ars technica report in full, see:
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/san-francisco-cellphone-warning-law-fails-science-says-judge.ars
