NATION IN BRIEF : NATIONWIDE : Judge Outlaws Ban on ‘Junk Calls’
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A federal judge in Portland, Ore., ruled that a law banning recorded telephone solicitations is an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. “Congress is attempting to ban totally a form of commercial speech, for the sake of reducing only slightly the number of telephone solicitations,” U.S. District Judge James A. Redden said in permanently blocking enforcement of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The law, enacted in 1991, was aimed at automatically dialed, recorded calls that attempt to sell products and services. The Federal Communications Commission said it had never enforced the ban on “junk calls.”
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