A federal judge in Massachusetts has set a deadline of this afternoon for the parties in a lawsuit challenging the Attorney General’s enactment of emergency regulations governing the collection industry to submit their materials, and said he would likely have an answer soon on a request for a temporary restraining order that seeks to block the regulations from being enforced until the lawsuit is resolved.
Lawyers representing both sides in ACA International v. Maura Healey made their case before Judge Richard Stearns of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Friday via a Zoom meeting. ACA International sued Healey, the Attorney General of Massachusetts last month, alleging she overstepped her authority in enacting regulations that, among other provisions, prohibited collection agencies from initiating phone conversations with individuals, unless the individual sought the call in the first place. Initiating a phone conversation without the individual’s consent constitutes an unfair or deceptive act under Massachusetts law for the duration of the state of emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic.
ACA International’s argument against the emergency regulations is that they violate the First Amendment by prohibiting only one type of calls — those from third-party debt collectors. The emergency regulations are a content-based restriction on free speech and is thus unconstitutional, the association alleges.
Judge Stearns noted during the hearing on Friday that “it just can’t work that way” were the Attorney General to wake up one day and enact regulations that suspended the Second Amendment during a state of emergency. Constitutional rights “don’t take a vacation,” Judge Stearns noted, even during a crisis.
