Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
In what could be regarded as an early Christmas gift to Hoosiers and anti-robocall advocates, the Indiana Supreme Court today ruled 5-0 to allow Attorney General Steve Carter to pursue enforcement against American Family Voices (AFV) for allegedly using the autodialing machines in the 2006 Indiana 9th District congressional race between Democrat Baron Hill and Republican Mike Sodrel.
Many of us have been watching for this ruling to be announced even since the court heard oral arguments back in June of this year (Here is a link to a post I made earlier). At stake was the future of the specific Indiana law in question but also the possibility for potentially creating a similar law at the national level. If this Indiana law was ruled unconstitutional today, then moving on to the national level would have been much harder.
Very interesting in this case was the fact that both the Indiana Democratic and Republican parties joined together to fight Steve Carter, the Republican Attorney General. Aiding AFV was James Bopp, Jr. one of the nation's leading First Amendment experts. In fact, I testified with him at the U.S. Senate on behalf of the Robocall Privacy Act. At the hearings his postion was that any regulation that imposes any limits on political speech was "fatally flawed'. Senator Bennett (R-UT) did not agree.
Great news!
Links about this story:
- Local IN newspaper story
- Local IN TV story
- Local IN newspaper story #2
- The Indiana Law Blog
- Indiana Supreme Court Website
- Indiana Supreme Court Oral Arugments Video Link
Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
Recent Comments