Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. Danfield

How later courts describe this case

• finding no state action in carrier’s refusal to place any indecent messages on its message network where governmental prohibition was only directed at obscene material
• reiterating the general rule that “classifications that neither regulate suspect classes nor burden fundamental rights must be sustained if they are rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest”
• carrier is under no constitutional restraints in its policy of barring all "adult entertainment" from its 976 network
• threats by a county attorney to prosecute the telephone company if it did not terminate 976 service to an “adult entertainment” provider converted actions of phone company to state action
• “The federal district court ... takes as its authority on federal constitutional issues, decisions of the United States Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, rather than those of the state supreme court.”
• § 1344 is “patterned” after mail and wire fraud statutes
• state’s imposition of certain conditions on utility’s receipt of benefits could be unconstitutional