Interesting People mailing list archives
more on [Illegal or not??] tactics in getting to voters
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2006 17:16:55 -0500
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 eduSubject: 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/litigationDavid 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%?" ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as PLEVY () citizen org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/ ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eackerma () u washington edu To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/
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- more on [Illegal or not??] tactics in getting to voters David Farber (Nov 07)