Saying it had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon's mobile network available for a text-message program.
The other leading wireless carriers have accepted the program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code.
(emphasis mine)
Verizon can determine which messages to carry and which to not (that would be the controversial or unsavory ones) because 1) the common carrier law protects voice messages but not text messages and 2) (here's where the real payoff comes, Bunky):
Messages urging political action are generally thought to be at the heart of what the First Amendment protects. But the First Amendment limits government power, not that of private companies like Verizon.
And you thought the Bill of Rights was about (ha ha) rights?
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