September 30, 2003
If you are following the Federal Registry formerly known as "Do-Not-Call", here is an update:
The legal wrangling over the national do-not-call list intensified yesterday even as telemarketers said they would stop calling those Americans who put their numbers on the list.
The more information that comes out, the more it seems this decision is less about free speech and more about Edward W. Nottingham:
Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer yesterday declined the telemarketing industry's request to stop the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing the rule that would impose fines on marketers who call any of the more than 50 million telephone numbers now on the list.
Yet hours later, a federal judge in Denver issued an order saying the FCC was not to use the list. The decision, from the same judge who ruled the do-not-call list unconstitutional last week, is just one more legal twist in the increasingly bitter fight over the government's anti-telemarketing rules.
After U.S. District Judge Edward W. Nottingham banned the FTC last week from enforcing the list, the FCC said it would take control of the registry. But last night Nottingham issued a new order saying the FCC should do no such thing. In his order, he said the FTC should stop 'trying to skirt' his earlier decision. 'A person enjoined cannot do indirectly through another what it is prohibited from doing directly,' he wrote.
It is apparent that free speech violation is not at stake here. Every business in the United States is free to talk about their products. They are even free to give their sales pitch into the telephone for as many hours as they choose. They just can't dial my number before doing it (but I'm sure the dial tone is more than happy to listen!)
