Lawful or Landmine? Court Rules on First Amendment Snares - Municipalities throughout the country regulate signs and set policy for flag-flying on public property. Done right, these are lawful functions of local...more
Nationwide, college athletic programs are facing a dilemma: can they roster transgendered athletes on teams that conform with their gender identity? The answer is: it depends on where the team is located....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The narrow but unanimous ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia does little to clarify for employers the tensions between religious liberties and LGBTQIA anti-discrimination rights....more
On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Fulton v. Philadelphia, unanimously holding, with multiple concurring opinions, that Philadelphia violated a Catholic organization’s religious rights when it excluded that...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has found that Philadelphia’s ordinance requiring a private foster care agency to certify same-sex couples as foster parents burdened the agency’s religious exercise in violation of the Free Exercise...more
When it comes to striking a balance between the religious rights of government employees and the government’s duty to avoid Establishment Clause violations, “context matters.” In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 991...more
Renowned Pennsylvanian Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that “in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” A recent decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court demonstrates that, even in the...more
On July 6, the Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants addressing whether a provision of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”)—which generally prohibits...more
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which has potential ramifications for public schools across the country that are losing money when students attend...more
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants held the government-debt exception of the TCPA unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. This means that...more
The Supreme Court is showing interest in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which is designed to control certain unwanted calls, and which over the last decade has been a favored tool of the plaintiffs’ bar to...more
On July 6, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Barr v. American Ass’n of Political Consultants, a case in which the plaintiffs challenged a government-debt collection exception to the Telephone Consumer...more
In a much-anticipated Supreme Court decision, Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, sure to impact the future of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), the Court addressed the issue of whether the...more
On June 30, 2020, the Supreme Court, in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, ruled that states must allow religious schools to participate in programs that provide scholarships to students attending private schools. ...more
Since 1991 the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, has regulated robocalls, which are loosely defined as calls or texts using automatic telephone dialing systems (a/k/a an “autodialer”). In 2015, Congress excluded...more
In three cases this term, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the freedom of religious institutions to access government benefits and to make employment decisions....more
Takeaway: In Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc, No. 19-631, 2020 WL 3633780 (U.S. July 6, 2020), the Supreme Court invalidated the exception for calls made for the purpose of collecting government...more
Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., Case No. 19–631 (2020). The federal government cannot exempt itself from the anti-robocall provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, 47 U. S. C....more
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which held that a State’s decision to bar aid to religious schools violates the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution....more
In a widely anticipated decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, the US Supreme Court determined that an exception to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) that allowed robocalls to mobile...more
On July 6, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants Inc. The court declined to invalidate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's automated calls to cellphones...more
On June 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., et al., settling an issue that has lingered over litigation under the Telephone Consumer Protection...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: While many businesses hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would blow up the ban on autodialed calls in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), on July 6, 2020, the nation’s highest court issued its...more
This week, a divided Supreme Court issued a plurality opinion in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc. (“Political Consultants”) striking down and severing a 2015 amendment to the TCPA, which exempts...more
On July 6, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s exception from its automated call restriction for calls to collect government debts...more