Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

 

Page 2

 

Lockyer, Other Attorneys General Around the U.S. File Amicus Brief Supporting ‘Do Not Call’ List

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Attorney General Bill Lockyer has joined with attorneys general from 44 other states, as well as District of Columbia and Puerto Rican officials in support of the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call program, Lockyer said yesterday.

The officials filed an amicus brief urging the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay a district judge’s ruling blocking the program on constitutional grounds.

“More than 6.1 million California phone numbers are among the 50 million numbers on the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry, and these Californians expect to be protected against the invasion of telemarketers selling products and services they don’t want and didn’t ask for,” Lockyer said in a statement. 

“Consumer protection is a responsibility states have historically shouldered and the right to privacy in California is a fundamental, inalienable right.  I hope the federal appellate court will move swiftly to allow this important consumer protection law to go forward.”

Lockyer noted that California was poised to initiate its own registry before the FTC approved its program. The state may go back to that plan if the district judge’s ruling is not stayed, Lockyer said.

 

Copyright 2003, Metropolitan News Company