The Do Not Call List is on hold again.
Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer declined the telemarketing industry’s request to stop the Federal Communications Commission from administering the Federal Do Not Call list, the Washington Post reported.
But, a federal judge in Denver then issued an order saying the FCC was not allowed to administer the list.
U.S. District Judge Edward D. Nottingham last week banned the FTC from enforcing the list. Then the FCC said it would take control of the registry.
Last night, though, Nottingham issued a new order stopping the FCC from doing so, the Post article said. Nottingham said that a person who has been stopped from doing something by a court order cannot do the thing indirectly.
Some 50 million consumers have signed up to be removed from telemarketers’ calling lists.
The Do-Not-Call Registry was supposed to go into effect tomorrow.
Meanwhile, yesterday, President Bush signed the bill giving the Federal Trade Commission the explicit authority to create and implement the Registry.
“While many good people work in the telemarketing industry, the public is understandably losing patience with these unwanted phone calls, unwanted intrusions,” Bush said in a statement. “And given a choice, Americans prefer not to receive random sales pitches at all hours of the day. And the American people should be free to restrict these calls.”
In spite of the legal ping-pong, Direct Marketing Association has said its members should honor the list for now.
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