The country’s trade association for political consultants had sued to strike down the prohibition against making robocalls to cell phones.
The Supreme Court on Monday let a ban on unsolicited robocalls to cell phones stand, handing defeats to both political consultants and the debt collection industry.
A case brought by the American Association of Political Consultants argued that a sweeping ban on robocalls to cell phones, put in place by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, was unconstitutional because of a carve-out added in 2015 that allowed for calls made to collect on a debt owed to or backed by the federal government.
The consultants argued that the carveout created a content-based restriction on speech, and the entire robocall ban should be tossed out because of it.
The Supreme Court rejected that argument, deciding that while the debt carveout was unconstitutional, the ban itself was not. The highest court in the nation severed the debt carveout but left the ban intact, meaning that neither political consultants nor debt collectors can make unsolicited robocalls to Americans’ cellphones.
“Americans passionately disagree about many things. But they are largely united in their disdain for robocalls,” Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanuagh wrote in the court’s decision.
The court’s final ruling brought a complicated mix of justices together. Six justices agreed that the carveout was an impermissible content-based restriction, while seven agreed that the remedy should be severing the carveout for debt collectors instead of tossing out the entire ban. Only two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, would’ve voted to strike down the entire robocall ban.
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The Supreme Court on Monday let a ban on unsolicited robocalls to cell phones stand, handing defeats to both political consultants and the debt collection industry https://t.co/iOVx7JRCjO
— POLITICO (@politico) July 6, 2020
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