3rd Circuit Sets April Oral Argument in TCPA Appeal vs. Pa. Democratic Committee

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tentatively calendared oral argument for the week of April 8 in plaintiff-appellant Andrew Perrong’s appeal to reverse the district court’s July 18 dismissal of his Telephone Consumer Protection Act case against the Democratic Committee of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the court said in a letter Tuesday (docket 23-2415) to Perrong’s counsel. The district court found no binding precedent in the 3rd Circuit or U.S. Supreme Court that squarely addressed whether randomly or sequentially calling all numbers on a previously compiled list constituted an automatic telephone dialing system that violates the TCPA, as Perrong alleges (see 2308090033). Relying on the TCPA’s statutory language, the district court said a device that randomly or sequentially calls all phone numbers in a previously compiled list wouldn’t qualify as an ATDS as long as the numbers weren’t randomly or sequentially generated.