The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Montana law violated the First Amendment by banning political robocalls. The court said the ban was content-based so detrimental to free speech. The 1991 law prevented automated calls to people with messages of five categories, one of which was political. (Route Fifty, September 11, 2019, by Bill Lucia)
Courts have consistently upheld bans on robocalls in ruling on laws such as the Telephone Communications Privacy Act so long as the laws aren’t directed at particular content. But so far this year federal appeals court have made three adverse rulings on laws they found content-based and unconstitutional. (Reuters, September 11, 2019, by Alison Frankel)