Illinois ex rel. Madigan v. Telemarketing Associates, Inc., 538 U.S. 600, 19 (2003)

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618

ILLINOIS ex rel. MADIGAN v. TELEMARKETING

ASSOCIATES, INC.

Opinion of the Court

Portions of the complaint in fact filed by the Attorney General are of this genre. See, e. g., App. 103, ¶ 72 (asserting that Telemarketers' charge "is excessive" and "not justified by expenses [they] paid"); id., at 86, ¶¶ 67H-67I (alleging statutory violations based on failure to disclose to prospective donors Telemarketers' percentage fee). As we earlier noted, however, see supra, at 608-609, the complaint and annexed affidavits, in large part, alleged not simply what Telemarketers failed to convey; they also described what Telemarketers misleadingly represented.

Under Illinois law, similar to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, "[w]hen the legal sufficiency of a complaint is challenged by a . . . motion to dismiss, all well-pleaded facts in the complaint are taken as true and [the court] must determine whether the allegations . . . , when interpreted in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, are sufficient to establish a cause of action upon which relief may be granted." Connick v. Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd., 174 Ill. 2d 482, 490, 675 N. E. 2d 584, 588 (1997) (emphasis added). Dismissal is proper "only if it clearly appears that no set of facts can be proved under the pleadings which will entitle the plaintiff to recover." 198 Ill. 2d, at 351, 763 N. E. 2d, at 293.

Taking into account the affidavits, and reading the complaint in the light most favorable to the Attorney General, that pleading described misrepresentations our precedent does not place under the First Amendment's cover. First, it asserted that Telemarketers affirmatively represented that "a significant amount of each dollar donated would be paid over to Viet[N]ow" to be used for specific charitable purposes—rehabilitation services, job training, food baskets, and assistance for rent and bills, App. 9, ¶ 34; id., at 124, 131, 145, 163, 169, 187, 189—while in reality Telemarketers knew that "15 cents or less of each dollar" was "available to Viet-[N]ow for its purposes." Id., at 9, ¶ 34. Second, the complaint alleged, essentially, that the charitable solicitation was a façade: Although Telemarketers represented that donated

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