WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court has ruled calls intended to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the U.S. are exempt from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The ruling came in the case Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., which had challenged the TCPA’s exception for government-backed debt.
The court upheld the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit's decision in the case, finding the exemption provision is severable from the TCPA. The court allowed the rest of the law intact. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also previously found the exception violates the Constitution.
The case is not the only TCPA-related litigation on which the Supreme Court could rule, as also up for review is the TCPA's definition of an autodialer. In 2018, the Ninth Circuit expanded the definition.
Both NAFCU and CUNA have been actively lobbying the FCC to take a narrower approach to defining an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS).