House Speaker Johnson’s Campaign Committee Is Sued for TCPA Violations
House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R) campaign committee removed to U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver a complaint filed Nov. 15 in Jefferson County Court in which William Hunsaker alleges the committee violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the…
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Colorado Consumer Protection Act by inundating his cellphone with at least five text-message solicitations for campaign donations without his prior consent. All rights are reserved, “including defenses and objections to venue and personal jurisdiction” and the right to move to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim for relief and failure to sue the appropriate parties, said the committee’s notice of removal Monday (docket 1:23-cv-03322). Dickinson Wright in El Paso is counsel for the Louisiana Republican's campaign committee; pro se plaintiff Hunsaker lives in Arvada, Colorado. Hunsaker's complaint alleges that the committee began using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) around Nov. 1 to send the text messages to his cellphone. The ATDS consisted of a combination of hardware and software systems “that have the capacity to store telephone numbers using a random or sequential generator and to dial such numbers from a list without human intervention,” it said. The committee “knowingly transmitted” misleading or inaccurate caller ID information “with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain something of value,” in violation of the TCPA, it said. The committee intentionally initiated the text messages even though it knew or should have known that Hunsaker hadn’t consented to receive them and that his number has been listed on the national do not call registry since November 2019 and the Colorado do not call list since December 2019, said the complaint. The committee’s knowing and willful conduct entitles Hunsaker to recover treble damages under the TCPA, plus court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees, it said, even though Hunsaker is representing himself.