In casual conversation, most lawyers, especially those practicing outside the constitutional law arena, would likely refer to the First Amendment as protecting free speech. However, the First Amendment also covers a host of other rights, one of which is that “Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”—more commonly known as the Petition Clause.

Interestingly, for debt-collection attorneys, as Lauren Riddick writes in her October Illinois Bar Journal article “Freedom to File,” the Petition Clause has only sparingly been discussed in relation to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and those discussions seem to have generated more confusion than context. Notably, the Petition Clause-FDCPA misunderstandings appear to largely stem from two different U.S. Supreme Court cases, especially regarding what they never actually said. One takeaway: The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) cannot invalidate the constitutional protection awarded by the First Amendment’s Petition Clause.

Read the October Illinois Bar Journal article, "Freedom to File."