First Amendment: Federal appeals rejects injunction on Minnesota law limiting robocalls

A bid to find Minnesota restriction on robocalls unconstitutional suffered a setback in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals when the court rejected a request for an injunction. The court said that the exceptions to the law did not constitute viewpoint discrimination but were based on an assumption of implied consent.” (Constitutional Law Prof Blog, August 6, 2017, by Steven D. Schwinn)

Bringing the lawsuit against Minnesota, a political consultant, whose company used robocalls to conduct political speech for clients, contended that the law violated the First Amendment by favoring robocalls of certain categories of callers. The Eighth Circuit court held that the exceptions were valid time, place, and manner restrictions so did not violate the First Amendment. (FindLaw, August 2, 2017)