BILL NUMBER: SB 1160	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  MAY 15, 2012
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 9, 2012

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Padilla

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2012

   An act to amend Section 7904 of, and to repeal and add Section
7907 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to communications.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1160, as amended, Padilla. Communications: service
interruptions.
   Existing law provides that an agent, operator, or employee of a
telegraph or telephone office who willfully refuses or neglects to
send a message received by the office is guilty of a misdemeanor.
Existing law provides that these requirements are not applicable when
 payment for  charges for transmittal or delivery
of the message  has   have  not been paid
or tendered, for messages counseling, aiding, abetting, or
encouraging treason or resistance to lawful authority, to a message
calculated to further any fraudulent plan or purpose, to a message
instigating or encouraging the perpetration of any unlawful act, or
to a message facilitating the escape of any criminal or person
accused of crime.
   This bill would retain the provision that the above-described
requirements are not applicable when payment for charges for
transmittal or delivery of the message has not been paid or tendered,
but would delete the other enumerated exceptions.
   Existing law provides that where a law enforcement official has
probable cause to believe that a person is holding hostages and is
committing a crime, or is barricaded and is resisting apprehension
through the use or threatened use of force, the official may order a
previously designated telephone corporation security employee to
arrange to cut, reroute, or divert telephone lines, as specified.
   This bill would repeal this provision.
   This bill would prohibit a governmental entity, as defined, and a
provider of communications service, as defined, acting at the request
of a governmental entity, from undertaking to interrupt
communications service, as defined, for the purpose of protecting
public safety or preventing the use of communications service for an
illegal purpose, except pursuant to an order signed by a judicial
officer, as defined, that makes specified findings.  The bill
would require the order to be narrowly tailored to the specific
circumstances under which the order is made and would prohibit the
order from interfering with more communication than is necessary to
achieve the purposes of the order. The bill would require any
interruption of service to extend only as long as is reasonably
necessary and to cease immediately once the danger that justified the
interruption is addressed.  The bill would provide that a good
faith reliance upon an order of a judicial officer constitutes a
complete defense  for any communications provider served with an
order that meets the above requirements  against any action
brought as a result of the interruption to communications service as
directed by that order.
   The bill would also find and declare that it is a matter of
statewide concern to ensure that California users of any
communications service not have this service interrupted and thereby
be deprived of a means to connect with the state's 911 emergency
services or be deprived of a means to engage in constitutionally
protected expression.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 7904 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
   7904.  Every agent, operator, or employee of any telegraph or
telephone office, who  wilfully   willfully
 refuses or neglects to send any message received at 
such   the  office for transmission, or 
wilfully   willfully  postpones the transmission of
the message out of its order, or  wilfully  
willfully  refuses or neglects to deliver any message received
by telegraph or telephone, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Nothing in
this section shall be construed to require any message to be
received, transmitted  ,  or delivered, unless the charges
thereon have been paid or tendered.
  SEC. 2.  Section 7907 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
  SEC. 3.  Section 7907 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
   7907.  (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have
the following meanings:
   (1) "Communications service" means any communications service that
interconnects with the public switched telephone network and is
required by the Federal Communications Commission to provide
customers with 911 access to emergency services.
   (2) "Governmental entity" means every local government, including
a city, county, city and county, a transit, joint  power
  powers  , special, or other district, the state,
and every agency, department, commission, board, bureau, or other
political subdivision of the state.
   (3) "Interrupt communications service" means to knowingly or
intentionally suspend, disconnect, interrupt, or disrupt
communications service to one or more particular customers or all
customers in a geographical area.
   (4) "Judicial officer" means a magistrate, judge, justice,
commissioner, referee, or any person appointed by a court to serve in
one of these capacities, of any state or federal court located in
this state.
   (b) No governmental entity and no provider of communications
service, or any agent thereof, acting at the request of a
governmental entity, shall interrupt communications service for the
purpose of protecting public safety or preventing the use of
communications service for an illegal purpose, except pursuant to an
order signed by a judicial officer that includes all of the following
findings:
   (1) That probable cause exists that the service is being or will
be used for an unlawful purpose or to assist in a violation of the
law.
   (2) That absent immediate and summary action to interrupt
communications service,  significant   serious
 danger to  the  public  health,
 safety  , or welfare  will result.
   (3) That interruption of communications service will not suppress
speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution or Section 2 of Article I of the California
Constitution, or violate any other rights under federal or state law.

   (c) The order shall be narrowly tailored to the specific
circumstances under which the order is made and shall not interfere
with more communication than is necessary to achieve the purposes of
the order.  
   (d) Any interruption of service shall extend only as long as is
reasonably necessary and shall cease immediately once the danger that
justified the interruption is addressed.  
   (c) 
    (e)  A provider of communications service that
intentionally interrupts communications service pursuant to
subdivision (b) shall comply with any rule or notification
requirement of the commission or Federal Communications Commission,
or both, and any other applicable provision or requirement of state
or federal law. 
   (d) 
    (f)  Good faith reliance upon an order of a judicial
officer authorizing the interruption of communications service
pursuant to subdivision (b) shall constitute a complete defense 
for any communications provider served with an order that meets the
requirements of that subdivision  against any action brought as
a result of the interruption to communications service as directed by
that order. 
   (e) 
    (g)  The Legislature finds and declares that it is a
matter of statewide concern to ensure that California users of any
communications service not have that service interrupted, and thereby
be deprived of 911 access to emergency services or a means to engage
in constitutionally protected expression.