The TCPAWorld continues on pins and needles awaiting the Supreme Court’s ultimate determination on the fate of the TCPA. The big appeal in Barr v. AAPC will determine whether the TCPA is struck down in some form or fashion–45% it will be— or whether it limps along as the broadest restriction on Constitutionally-protected speech in our nation’s history–35% chance.
We already had some high SCOTUS drama this week, when TCPAWorld.com broke the news–yep over all the major news agencies–that the CFPB’s leadership structure had been deemed unconstitutional. (BTW–consumerprivacyworld.com has GREAT coverage of this decision if you’re interested.) The Supremes severed the “for cause” removal provision from the enabling statute, however, keeping the agency intact. And while the severance activity in Seila Law might lead some to conclude the TCPA might be salvaged by a similar maneuver, I view matters entirely differently–as I explained here.
Then again, I’ve been wrong before. Like on Monday evening when I predicted the Supremes would rule in AAPC yesterday (6/30). Nope.
But today we have more clarity than ever as to when the Supreme Court might finally retire the TCPA. Here’s what we know:
- Supreme Court has a total of 8 opinions left to decide;
- Usually yesterday would have been the last day of the decision calendar but, COVID;
- Today Wednesday (7/1) was a conference day, and the Supremes have set Monday (7/6) as the next decision day;
- There are currently ZERO cases ahead of Barr left to be decided– i.e. all cases argued earlier than Barr have already been decided–but SCOTUS does not hand down opinions in strict order;
- A case argued to SCOTUS the day before Barr was decided on Monday (6/29) and a second case argued the day before Barr was decided yesterday (6/30).
So Monday (7/6) really looks like the day. We have set our big FREE webinar breaking down the decision for Tuesday (7/7) just to be safe. (You can try to register here if you’d like but I think it is overfilled.)
You can expect full team coverage from the folks here at TCPAWorld.com and Squire Patton Boggs. We’ll look at the decision from all angles, including what it means for carriers, servicers, collectors, marketers, platforms, consumers, lead generators and everyone else living in the TCPAWorld.
Stay tuned..