{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-and-rep-eshoo-statement-on-supreme-court-oral-arguments-about-robocalls", "Senator Markey and Rep. Eshoo Statement on Supreme Court Oral Arguments about RobocallsRead More", "2020-12-09", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Edward Markey", "M000133", "www.markey.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Eshoo\r\nand Markey led 19 members of Congress in amicus brief in robocall case argued\r\nbefore Supreme Court today Washington (December 8,\r\n2020)  Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the House author of the Telephone\r\nConsumer Protection Act (TCPA) and Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.)\r\nreleased the following statement after listening to oral arguments before the\r\nUnited States Supreme Court in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid. Markey and\r\nEshoo led 19 members of the Senate and House of Representatives in filing an amicus\r\nbrief urging the Court to uphold the Ninth Circuit's decision which found\r\nthat the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) protects consumers from\r\nrobocalls regardless of whether the robocaller dials telephone numbers stored\r\nin a list or uses a system that dials arbitrary numbers produced by a random or\r\nsequential number generator. Today, the Justices\r\nheard loud and clear that the TCPA remains absolutely essential. By restricting\r\nrobocalls to mobile phones, the TCPA prevents countless unwanted robocalls\r\nevery minute, hour, day, month and year from intruding on our privacy, scamming\r\nour wallets, and overwhelming our confidence in the nation's telephone\r\nnetworks, said Senator Markey and Rep. Eshoo. We\r\nare confident that the Court will find that narrowly interpreting the\r\ndefinition of automatic telephone dialing system to exclude certain dialing\r\nsystems ignores the intent of Congress when the law was enacted with bipartisan\r\nsupport and hurts Americans, as we stated in our amicus brief. The Court must\r\nreject efforts to reverse decades of precedent that would enable telemarketers\r\nand scammers to initiate billions of automated calls to Americans who have a\r\nunited distain for intrusive robocalls.  The plaintiffs in Facebook,\r\nInc. argue that TCPA's definition of automatic telephone dialing system\r\n(ATDS) excludes systems that dial pre-stored numbers. The Ninth Circuit\r\nrejected this argument. In their amicus brief, the lawmakers led by Senator\r\nMarkey and Rep. Eshoo urged the Supreme Court to uphold the Ninth Circuit\r\ndecision because the legislative history of TCPA clearly shows Congress clearly\r\nintended for the definition of ATDS to include those dialing pre-stored phone\r\nnumbers. As the brief asserts, if the Supreme Court overturns the Ninth\r\nCircuit's decision, well-resourced telemarketers would have the ability and\r\nincentive to robocall Americans endlessly.  Under the TCPA, automatic\r\ntelephone dialing systems (i.e., technology that allows someone to make calls\r\nwithout manually dialing a number by hand) and artificial or prerecorded voices\r\nmay not be used to make calls to cell phones, except with prior express consent\r\nof the called party, or if the call is being made for emergency purposes.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-and-rep-eshoo-statement-on-supreme-court-oral-arguments-about-robocalls"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.549332868307829, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}