Judge suggests he may side with most of Berkeley’s cell phone law

A federal judge suggested Thursday that he would strip Berkeley’s cell phone ordinance of its most far-reaching language — telling customers the devices may pose radiation dangers for children — but might leave the rest of the city’s warning message intact, over industry objections.

The message about risks to children is “controversial” and was not required by the Federal Communications Commission in manufacturers’ product manuals, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said during a 90-minute hearing in his San Francisco courtroom.

[...] he noted that the rest of the information that Berkeley wants retailers to convey to customers, that carrying a switched-on phone in their pockets or bra might exceed federal radiation-safety standards, is taken from FCC findings.

A lawyer for CTIA-The Wireless Association indicated the trade group would challenge any city-imposed warning, even without the language on children, as a violation of free speech.

CTIA successfully challenged a San Francisco ordinance that would have required cell phone retailers to tell customers the phones could expose them to dangerous levels of radiation, which the World Health Organization considered possibly cancer-causing.

CTIA’s lawyer was Theodore Olson, the former U.S. solicitor general who successfully represented George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election dispute and gay rights advocates who fought California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor and current Democratic presidential candidate who helped to draft Berkeley’s ordinance, represented the city.