Judge blocks a law restricting prerecorded phone sales pitches

Ring! Hello? Argh! You've missed the final seconds of an N.F.L. play-off game to answer the phone only to hear a recorded voice pitching some product you don't want. Why, there ought to be a law...!

Actually there is. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which restricts telephone solicitation, went into effect Dec. 20, and is already being challenged. Kathryn Moser, who runs a chimney-sweeping business in Keizer, Oregon, says the law hurts her marketing, and got U.S. District Judge James A. Redden to issue a preliminary injunction on the part of the law that deals with prerecorded phone solicitations. The injunction applies nationwide, and the Federal Communications Commission will probably contest it in court.