November 4, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
An Arkansas charity is challenging a 1997 state law intended to protect consumers from aggressive telemarketers.
The National Federation of the Blind of Arkansas last month asked a state court to permanently bar state officials from enforcing the law, which the lawsuit contends is too vague and restricts free speech.
The law says callers must terminate a telephone solicitation if the person who receives the call “indicates” that he or she is not interested in hearing about a charity or donating to it.
The lawsuit says the statute is not clear enough as to when charities and their representatives would be required to terminate a call. “An indication may be given by express words, equivocal words, a sigh, hesitation, or even by a tone of voice,” the lawsuit says, “all of which must be interpreted correctly by the speaker under threat of criminal prosecution.”
In addition, the charity claims that the law violates free-speech rights, which, the lawsuit says, give people “the right to speak but also the freedom to listen or not listen to the speech of others, in one’s own discretion — and not by government fiat.”
State officials were not available for comment.
