Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Nineteen Hundred One Collins Corp., 83 So. 2d 865 (Fla. 1955)

The appellants were Southern Bell, the State Hotel Commissioner, and Richard W. Ervin as Attorney General of Florida. The Circuit Court had declared Chapter 365, Florida Statutes 1953, and section 561.291 unconstitutional. Justice Thornal described Chapter 365 as “the so-called ‘anti-bookie law’ aimed at the control of bookmaking and other illegal gambling through the use of telephone, telegraph and other wire services,” and section 561.291 as a 1951 act allowing a beverage or hotel licence to be revoked when communication facilities were removed for use in illegal gambling.

On March 12, 1954 the Attorney General notified the telephone company that the “customary telephone service” it furnished to the Shore Club Hotel was being “used in violation of the laws of Florida, particularly the gambling laws,” and the company gave notice that it would end the service. The hotel’s operator sued. The court held both statutes “constitutional and meet all of the requirements of the organic law,” reversed the decree and remanded. Chief Justice Drew and Justices Terrell and Thomas concurred; Justices Hobson, Roberts and Buford dissented. Rehearing was denied on January 6, 1956.

In 1950 Ervin had described section 365.02, “the 1949 law that banned wire service to bookmakers,” to the Kefauver Committee. CourtListener gives no docket number for this opinion.