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Week at a The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 {TCPA} prohibits almost all rob ocalls to cell phones. Here's some information about the law
Week at a The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 {TCPA} prohibits almost all rob ocalls to cell phones. Here's some information about the law and its passage: in 1991, Congress passed and President George H. W. Bush signed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The Act responded to a torrent of vociferous consumer complaints about intrusive robo- calls. A growing number of telemarketers were using equipment that could automatically dial a telephone number and deliver an ar- ticial or prerecorded voice message. At the time, more than goo,ooo solicitors called more than 13 million Americans every day. Consumers were I"outraged" and considered robocalls an invasion of privacy "regardless of the content or the initiator of the message." A leading Senate sponsor of the TCPA captured the zeitgeist in 1991, describing robocalls as "the scourge of modern civilization. They wake us up in the morning; they interrupt our dinner at night; they force the sick and elderly out of bed,- they hound us until we want to rip the telephone right out ofthe wall." in enacting the TCPA, Congress found that harming robocalls was "the only effective means of protecting telephone consumers from this nuisance and privacy invasion." To that end, the TCPA im- posed various restrictions on the use of automated telephone equipment. As relevant here, one restriction prohibited \"any call {other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party] using any automatic tele- phone dialing system or an articial or prerecorded voice\" to "any telephone number assigned to a. . .cellular telephone service." . . . The TCPA imposes tough penalties for violating the robocall re- striction. Private parties can sue to recover up to $1,5oo per viola- tion or three times their actual monetary losses, which can add up quickly in a class action. Survival Corp. manufacturers and sells survival gear and aggressively pro- motes its products to the "prepper" communitypeople concerned that the apocalypse or dissolution of civil society are nigh. Survival Corp. places io,ooo robocalls to cellphones using this script: 10 UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES [LAW 303 Global pandemic. Ecological disasters. Rioters in the streets. A con- tested election. Are you afraid for your family? Survival Corp. sells peace of mind. A plaintiff files a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all 10,000 people who re- ceived the robocall, seeking $15 million in damages. Survival Corp. seeks to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds. You're the district judge hearing this case and must decide whether to grant or deny Survival Corp's motion to dismiss. What do you decide? Explain your answer. Be sure to identify the applicable standard of scrutiny and ex- plain whether the law passes or fails that standard. If you need more infor- mation, say so and explain how that information would influence your analysis
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