“CRYSTAL CLEAR”: Florida Federal Court Stays Discovery in TCPA SMS Case– Says Congress May Have Delegated Too Much Authority to FCC

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Just a beautiful case to report this morning.

In McGonigle v. Pure Green 2026 WL 111338 (S.D. Fl. Jan. 15, 2026) the district court granted the defense motion to stay a TCPA suit involving SMS messages to numbers on the DNC.

Before I go any further though:

Ok, now we can continue.

A court in the S.D. Fl has already held SMS messages are not calls but this case appears ready to go even further.

Although the court did not yet rule on the merits of a pending motion to dismiss, the court took a “preliminary peek” and found the motion to be at least facially meritorious. The Court categorically rejected the Plaintiff’s argument that Loper Bright required the court to continue to defer to FCC rulings as “filling up the details” in the TCPA’s provisions:

“Determining whether “telephone call” in § 227(c)(5) includes text messages would likely more than double the number of private causes of action authorized by the TCPA. Doubling the scope of the provision is not “filling up the details.” In actuality, § 227(c)(1)(E) may run afoul of the nondelegation doctrine, since there are no delimitations on the discretion it grants the Commission. But we do not need to determine that now. Instead, we merely reject Plaintiff’s request that we use § 227(c)(1)(E) to resurrect Chevron out of the grave. § 227(c)(1)(E) does not require this Court to defer to the Commission’s interpretation of § 227(c)(5). And we remind Plaintiff that “agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.” Loper Bright, 603 U.S. at 373.”

I have been saying for years 227(c)(1)(E) may violate the delegation rules but no court has ever agreed until this decision.

Now, granted, it is preliminary and not final–again for now this is just a discovery ruling– but the court found it “crystal clear” that the issue of whether an SMS message is a “call” for TCPA purposes would be determined by the court alone without deference to the Commission.

Very very interesting. We will keep an eye on this one.

If you’d like the latest on TCPA decisions on SMS messages–and everything else– be sure to request a FREE copy of the 2026 Troutman Amin, LLP TCPA Annual Review, presented by Contact Center Compliance! Hundreds of cases broken down and analyzed– super easy to understand. And totally FREE.

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Chat soon.

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Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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