Last week the Indiana Supreme Court decided State of Indiana v. American Family Voices, Inc.  At issue was the enforcement of the state’s restrictive rules against the use of automated dialing systems for prerecorded calls, or what some call “robocalls” and others call “artificial intelligence calls” (or AIC).   The law challenged in Indiana prohibits both commercial and noncommercial prerecorded calls.  The Indiana Supreme Court, in a 5-0 opinion, did not take the opportunity to discuss at length the important constitutional issues at play.  In fact, the court noted:

As can be easily inferred from the presence of the Democratic and Republican State Central Committees as amici in this case, this litigation raises questions as to the extent to which the Autodialer Law limits and may constitutionally limit the use of autodialers to convey political messages.  However, all parties agree that no such questions are before this Court at this stage of the litigation and we express no opinion with respect thereto.

The court simply held that the case survied an Indiana Trial Rule 12(B)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because

the State is not required to allege that the defendants made consumer transaction calls with commercial messages using an autodialer in order to defeat a motion to dismiss under T.R. 12(B)(6).

The Stop Political Calls Blog continues to provide in depth coverage of this issue, which the Supreme Court of Indiana’s opinion has left far from resolved.