538
Breyer, J., concurring
laws of this kind because of the importance of these privacy and speech-related objectives. See Warren & Brandeis 196 (arguing for state-law protection of the right to privacy). Cf. Katz v. United States, 389 U. S. 347, 350-351 (1967) ("[T]he protection of a person's general right to privacy—his right to be let alone by other people—is, like the protection of his property and of his very life, left largely to the law of the individual States"); ante, at 518 (protecting privacy and promoting speech are "interests of the highest order"). Rather than broadly forbid this kind of legislative enactment, the Constitution demands legislative efforts to tailor the laws in order reasonably to reconcile media freedom with personal, speech-related privacy.
Nonetheless, looked at more specifically, the statutes, as applied in these circumstances, do not reasonably reconcile the competing constitutional objectives. Rather, they disproportionately interfere with media freedom. For one thing, the broadcasters here engaged in no unlawful activity other than the ultimate publication of the information another had previously obtained. They "neither encouraged nor participated directly or indirectly in the interception." App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 99-1687, p. 33a. See also ante, at 525. No one claims that they ordered, counseled, encouraged, or otherwise aided or abetted the interception, the later delivery of the tape by the interceptor to an intermediary, or the tape's still later delivery by the intermediary to the media. Cf. 18 U. S. C. § 2 (criminalizing aiding and abetting any federal offense); 2 W. LaFave & A. Scott, Substantive Criminal Law §§ 6.6(b)-(c), pp. 128-129 (1986) (describing criminal liability for aiding and abetting). And, as the Court points out, the statutes do not forbid the receipt of the tape itself. Ante, at 525. The Court adds that its holding "does not apply to punishing parties for obtaining the relevant information unlawfully." Ante, at 532, n. 19 (emphasis added).
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