Cite as: 532 U. S. 514 (2001)
Breyer, J., concurring
terest in publishing matters of public importance"); ante, at 534 (privacy interest outweighed in these cases).
The statutory restrictions before us directly enhance private speech. See Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U. S. 539, 559 (1985) (describing " 'freedom not to speak publicly' " (quoting Estate of Hemingway v. Random House, Inc., 23 N. Y. 2d 341, 348, 244 N. E. 2d 250, 255 (1968))). The statutes ensure the privacy of telephone conversations much as a trespass statute ensures privacy within the home. That assurance of privacy helps to overcome our natural reluctance to discuss private matters when we fear that our private conversations may become public. And the statutory restrictions consequently encourage conversations that otherwise might not take place.
At the same time, these statutes restrict public speech directly, deliberately, and of necessity. They include media publication within their scope not simply as a means, say, to deter interception, but also as an end. Media dissemination of an intimate conversation to an entire community will often cause the speakers serious harm over and above the harm caused by an initial disclosure to the person who intercepted the phone call. See Gelbard v. United States, 408 U. S. 41, 51-52 (1972). And the threat of that widespread dissemination can create a far more powerful dis-incentive to speak privately than the comparatively minor threat of disclosure to an interceptor and perhaps to a handful of others. Insofar as these statutes protect private communications against that widespread dissemination, they resemble laws that would award damages caused through publication of information obtained by theft from a private bedroom. See generally Warren & Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harv. L. Rev. 193 (1890) (hereinafter Warren & Brandeis). See also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 652D (1977).
As a general matter, despite the statutes' direct restrictions on speech, the Federal Constitution must tolerate
537
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