It's feel good legislation that no lawmaker wants to be on the wrong side of. The bill heads to the Governor for his signature and I can't imagine Bob Riley doing much other than signing it with a flourish, protecting the privacy of individuals.
A case can be made against the bill...calls to 911 are a kind of public record, after all, not someone's private phone conversations. Nonetheless, the Legislature has spoken.
Alabama was the location of the very first 911 call in the nation. Now it is leading the way toward restricting who can hear the content of those calls.
This is the damnfool tomfoolery for which the AL legislature is particularly renown... er, infamous.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely doubt it (their new law) will hold up to Constitutional scrutiny.
First, it's a wholly tax-payer paid service - 9-1-1, that is. And, it has NOTHING to do with any issue of security, of any type.
The rest of the argument is purely academic.
That damn pesky First Amendment, and those freaking founding fathers! What a buncha' mothers!