Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc.
United States Supreme Court
140 S. Ct. 2335 (2020)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
In 2015 Congress added an exception to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) that permitted robocalls made for the purpose of collecting debts owed to or backed by the federal government. Such debts included, for example, student loans and mortgages. The American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., and other organizations (plaintiffs) brought suit, claiming that the new exception violated the First Amendment by favoring debt-collection content over non-debt-collection content. The plaintiffs, many seeking to make robocalls generally, argued that the entire TCPA should be invalidated. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the amendment to the TCPA was unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari. The government acknowledged that if the Court applied strict scrutiny, the amendment could not survive.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kavanaugh, J.)
Concurrence (Sotomayor, J.)
Concurrence/Dissent (Breyer, J.)
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