Washington, D.C. – Monday, October 30, 2006 - FreeEats.com, today, announced that it has filed a Notice of Appeal in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal seeks to overturn a decision of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in which the District Court held that federal pre-emption did not apply to FreeEats’ interactive voice response telephone system. FreeEats and its legal counsel believe that the law is clear that only Congress has authority to legislate regarding interstate telephone calls and that the Federal Communications Commission has authority to regulate such calls under federal statutes. The FCC has expressly exempted political and survey calls from the federal law regulating the use of automatic dialing and prerecorded messaging systems in interstate calls.
FreeEats had filed suit seeking to enjoin the Indiana Attorney General from attempting to enforce certain provisions of an Indiana statute that ignores the federal role regarding interstate calls. His actions “chill” critical First Amendment rights of FreeEats, its clients, and the voters of Indiana. The Attorney General’s efforts are particularly serious because they seek to stop the most effective means of communicating with constituents and citizens, and they violate the Federal law that permits these types of interstate calls.
As reported in the New York Sun (10/27/06), a professor who studies First Amendment issues at the University of California Los Angeles, Eugene Volokh, also criticized the ruling. "It seems to me that this decision is assailable and is probably wrong," the professor said.
FreeEats.com is a data-base company which employs an automated telephone system which asks survey questions and tabulates the “Yes” or “No” responses. All such responses are voluntary. Sometimes, as in Indiana, survey questions seek to determine what issues motivate constituents for or against particular issues. The FreeEats system seeks to determine sensitivities of constituents on key issues in order to assist organizations in their mobilization efforts through identifying constituents likely to support their issues or candidates.
The Attorney General has filed suit in state court seeking penalties against entities like FreeEats for making automated, interactive-voice response telephone calls into Indiana on behalf of organizations active in the political process.
FreeEats’ law suit alleged that enforcement of the state statute against FreeEats violates free speech rights under the United States and Indiana constitutions, and constitutes an unconstitutional restraint on interstate commerce. Interstate calls are protected against state regulation and prohibition under the Interstate Commerce clause, Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution. In debating whether to pass the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA), Congress expressly recognized that the states did not have any authority to regulate or prohibit interstate telephone calls and in an effort to provide proper federal regulation over interstate calls, Congress adopted the TCPA which gives the Federal Communications Commission regulatory authority over such calls.
As stated, above, the FCC has expressly exempted political and survey calls from the restrictions of the TCPA. In a ruling that surprised some long-time experts in constitutional law, the federal District Court concluded that the Constitution did not give the federal government sole right to regulate interstate telephone calls.
About FreeEats.com - FreeEats.com is a privately-held database company
headquartered in Virginia which uses a patent-pending survey technology. Its interactive voice response telephone system allows FreeEats to ask multiple questions to which the responder gives voice answers rather than the alternate technology which uses telephone push buttons to indicate the responses. FreeEats is scrupulous in its efforts to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
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