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Supervisor Chu proposes pause to city’s yellow-pages pilot after Ninth Circuit ruling
Summary
Supervisor Carmen Chu announced legislation to suspend San Francisco’s pilot program regulating Yellow Pages distribution after a Ninth Circuit ruling extended First Amendment protections to those directories.
Supervisor Carmen Chu told the Board of Supervisors she will introduce legislation to suspend the city’s three‑year pilot program aimed at reducing environmental waste and neighborhood blight from overdistribution of Yellow Pages phone books. The action follows a recent Ninth Circuit panel decision that, according to Chu and her office, grants Yellow Pages full First Amendment protection and undermines the legal basis used in prior local ordinances.
Chu said she disagrees with the Ninth Circuit’s ruling and called it a misreading of the First Amendment, but that in consultation with the City Attorney she will seek to suspend implementation of the pilot while appellate proceedings proceed. Chu said she remains committed to finding alternative policy approaches that can reduce the nuisance distribution of unwanted phone directories and that staff and the City Attorney will draft new legislation exploring other tools to achieve the same goals.
No ordinance text was adopted at the meeting; Chu announced the intent to introduce suspension legislation and said she is working with the City Attorney to draft possible alternative approaches.
