AP: Judge: Indiana Can Block Automated Calls (9th CD race)

[Eugene]

Judge: Indiana Can Block Automated Calls

By CAROL DRUGA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 25, 2006; 3:54 PM

INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal judge has ruled Indiana can prohibit a California-based
group from making automated calls attacking a Democratic congressional candidate.

The candidate, Baron Hill, is a former House member trying to recapture his seat
from Republican Rep. Mike Sodrel. The two are rivals for the third straight campaign
in a district so divided that each man has won once, and the race is expected to be
one of the closest in the country.

Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter sued the Republican-oriented Economic Freedom
Fund in September after receiving consumer complaints about the calls. Such calls are
prohibited by state law unless previously agreed to by the recipient.

FreeEats.com, the Virginia company that made the calls on behalf of the Economic
Freedom Fund, later filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana claiming that its ban
on such calls is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech and interstate commerce.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501275.html

[RevCheesehead]

1. Does that include those of us on "Do Not Call" lists?

I'd even pay for the priviledge. I no longer answer calls from numbers I don't recognize.

[Indiana_Dem]

2. I know. It was blocked after the Dems started gaining ground.

The Rs were doing it all the time. When the Ds started doing it, there was opposition!

That's ok, though, we've been phonebanking person-to-person and getting very good results....probably better than an automated message.

[splat]

3. I can't stand these calls

They wake me up, interrupt dinner, pull me off the toilet. I know who I'm going to vote for. Leave me alone.