more on [Illegal or not??] tactics in getting to voters

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Paul Levy <plevy () citizen org>
Date: November 7, 2006 5:04:55 PM EST
To: dave () farber net, eackerma () u washington edu
Subject: Re: [IP] more on [Illegal or not??] tactics in getting to  
voters

I confess that one of my colleagues here, who follows election law  
much more closely than I do, had a reaction similar to Ethan's.

Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation

> > > "Ethan Ackerman" <eackerma () u washington edu> 11/7/2006 5:01 PM >>>
Pshaw, Paul!  (and greetings on what may be a long night for you too.)

I share your immediate reaction and sentiment that FTC (or in this
case FCC) rules about purely political speech can't be constitutional,
but then I too have to remember, that some kinds of constraints on
political speech are legal in the U.S.  Some of them even make sense,
like minimal requirements to prevent deception.

Maybe that's why, in this case, the NH state Attorney General is  
investigating:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061104/ 
REPOSITORY/611040380/1043/NEWS01

Think donation limits, famous Supreme court cases like Buckley v.
Valeo, McConnell v. FCC, candidate endorsement requirements in TV ads,
etc.

The specifc FCC regulations about caller identification at the
beginning of auto-dialed pre-recorded calls haven't been challenged,
as far as I know, on 1st amendment grounds, but they are veeeery
similar to the challenged, and upheld, "I'm candidate X and I approve
this message" rules for TV ads.  Political identification requirements
are very useful, informative, and help prevent deception, all in a
content- and viewpoint-neutral way.

FCC regs are here:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/09nov20051500/ 
edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2005/octqtr/47cfr64.1200.htm

-Ethan


On 11/7/06, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
> > Begin forwarded message:
> From: Paul Levy <plevy () citizen org>
> Date: November 7, 2006 4:18:27 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Illegal tactics in getting to voters
>
> do the FTC's rules apply to purely political speech?  I rather doubt
> it, and I doubt that they would be constitutional to the extent that
> they did
>
> Paul Alan Levy
> Public Citizen Litigation Group
> 1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
> Washington, D.C. 20009
> (202) 588-1000
> http://www.citizen.org/litigation
>
> > > > David Farber <dave () farber net> 11/7/2006 4:15 PM >>>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Henrik Brameus <blondino () gmail com>
> Date: November 7, 2006 3:46:17 PM EST
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Illegal tactics in getting to voters
>
> Dave,
>
> I thought this might be interesting for IP readers.
>
> It turns out that the GOP has been using prerecorded telemarketing
> tactics, or so called robo-calls, to call up to 200,000 voters, and
> every single call is illegal acrding to the telemarketing laws. What
> they are not doing is to advice that the call is from the GOP in the
> beginning, but rather saves that to the end.
>
> Instead they start of with "Hello. I'm calling with information about
> [Democratic candidate]," then pauses for a few seconds and then goes
> on slamming the Democratic candidate and finishes with informing that
> the information is from the GOP. Of course, if you hang up after the
> inital statement, ther robo-call agent will just call again,
> continuing to harrass you for what will seem like forever.
>
> Personally I find it remarkable that one of the big parties willingly
> breaks the law to smear their opponents.
>
> Here are some liks to more information:
> http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/11/01/
> how_do_you_like_those_nasty_telephone_calls_from_the_campaigns/
> http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/5/191647/511
> http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/56076
>
> Thanks,
>
> Henrik
>
> --
> "If you're right 98% of the time, why quibble about the remaining 3%?"
>
>
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