A federal judge in Missouri has ruled that a law banning unsolicited fax advertisements is unconstitutional, according to the Boston Globe.
The ruling, reached March 13 by U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh, applies only to the eastern half of the state, and Missouri Attorney General Jeremiah Nixon said he would appeal. The decision overturned a portion of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) governing unsolicited faxes.
The case began two years ago when Missouri Attorney General Jeremiah Nixon filed separate lawsuits against broadcast fax services Fax.com of California and Texas-based American Blast Fax. Missouri alleged that both companies sent thousands of unwanted faxes to businesses and consumers, a practice banned in 1992 by the TCPA.
While a number of state and federal courts have upheld the law’s constitutionality so far, Limbaugh disagreed. He said that the faxes–unless they caused harm to the recipients–were protected forms of commercial free speech.
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