Indiana's Do Not Call Law Withstands Challenge
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11/21/2006
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Inside Indiana Business
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The deadline has expired for the National Coalition of Prayer and three other nonprofit groups to ask the United States Supreme Court to hear their challenge to Indiana’s Do Not Call Law. The lack of action by the groups means that Indiana’s telephone privacy law has withstood the test of time, surviving a series of state and federal legal challenges that began shortly after the law’s inception in 2001 announced Attorney General Steve Carter announced today.
“We have been fighting telemarketers since the law’s inception to defend the residential privacy rights of Hoosiers,” Carter said. “Finally these groups are recognizing numerous state and federal court orders upholding the privacy rights of individuals over the interests of telemarketers.”
The National Coalition of Prayer, Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Kentucky-Indiana Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America filed a lawsuit four years ago in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana arguing that the Do Not Call law violated the First Amendment. All of these groups have used professional solicitors to raise money on their behalf. Fundraising campaign reports filed with the attorney general’s office reveal that professional fundraisers for these three groups have kept as much as 90% of the dollars raised.
Federal district court Judge Sarah Evans Barker upheld the constitutionality of the law in a September 6, 2005, ruling. Earlier this year the United State’s Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling. Indiana’s Do Not Call law has withstood similar First Amendment attacks in state court.
“We have endured a lengthy, but worthwhile effort to maintain this privacy protection for citizens,” Carter added. “We continue to monitor and work toward defeating other groups’ efforts at the federal agency level to shoot down this law.”
Petitions have been filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by the Consumer Bankers Association, Alliance Contact Services and many other telemarketing interests seeking to preempt the Indiana Do Not Call law. The petition seeks to allow thousands of telemarketing calls into the state. The petitions, which were filed in 2004 and 2005 remain pending.
The attorney general’s office offers 24-hour, 7-day a week registration.
The next registration deadline for the Indiana Do Not Call list is midnight Tuesday, November 21, 2006. Numbers registered by midnight EST will be placed on the January 1, 2007 list. Registration is available online at www.attorneygeneral.IN.gov or by calling 1-888-834-9969
There are more than 1.8 million phone numbers registered on the list, protecting the residential privacy of more than 3.5 million Hoosiers.
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