/>iPolitical robotexts.
Need I say more?
It seems like nothing is more roundly disliked than out-of-the-blue messages from candidates and parties urging you to vote or donate or… whatever.
Sure this is core political speech. Very much protected by the First Amendment. But most folks just don’t like to receive it.
And many of these texts are also illegal under various enactments– including a number of state laws. So its always very fascinating to see the pile of lawsuits pouring in after each political cycle.
Well it appears sue-the-political-parties season is upon us again, and I am definitely hear for it.
For instance Samantha Johnson and Cari Johnson just sued a bunch of familiar names– the Republican National Committee, NRSC, NRCC, and Congressional Leadership Fund– for alleged Utah state law violations over alleged robotexts that continued after a stop request was received.
The texts at issue read “From Trump: ALL HELL JUST BROKE LOOSE! I WAS CONVICTED IN A RIGGED TRIAL!” Followed by a CTA and a link.
Thought provoking.
The text links allegedly lead back to a Winred website where donations were sought.
Winred is a (the?) major fundraising platform for the right. Per the Complaint: “WinRed is an online fundraising platform supported by a united front of the. . . RNC, NRSC, and NRCC.” However, Text messages with Winred links are allegedly not sent by Winred. Rather, they are sent by the political entities that are seeking financial donations.
The complaint contains a bunch of images of purported complaints about Winred texts on social media and paints a pretty bleak tale:
Interesting.
To be sure, this is not just a right wing phenomenon, but the complaint focuses on the activities of Winred-aligned entities.
Importantly both Plaintiffs contend they received multiple (sometimes up to 11) messages after requesting texts “stop.”
The complaint seeks to represent the following classes:
The RNC Class
All Utah residents to whom the RNC sent two or more text messages, between June 6,
2022, and the date of class certification, after the resident said stop.
The NRSC Class
All Utah residents to whom the NRSC sent two or more text messages, between June 6,
2022, and the date of class certification, after the resident said stop.
The NRCC Class
All Utah residents to whom the NRCC sent two or more text messages, between June 6,
2022, and the date of class certification, after the resident said stop.
The CLF Class
All Utah residents to whom the CLF sent two or more text messages, between June 6,
2022, and the date of class certification, after the resident said stop.
Each of these classes is alleged to contain more than 10,000 members!
And here’s the most interesting part. The suit isn’t brought under the TCPA, it is brought under a STATE law– UTAH CODE ANN. § 13-25a-107.2
Utah Code Ann. § 13-25a-107.2 prohibits a telephone solicitor from making calls to a person who has previously informed them, either in writing or orally, that they do not want to receive such calls.
Damages are $500.00 per call PLUS attorneys fees– so this is even worse than the TCPA!
Lots of risk here.
The case is brought by Dr. Evil himself– Tom Alvord– so this is a REAL issue for the Winred crowd. That guys is a great lawyer and pushes cases hard.
Complaint here: Winred Complaint
Defendants do not yet seem to have retained counsel or responded to the complaint.
We will pay very close attention to this one.
