Illinois ex rel. Madigan v. Telemarketing Associates, Inc., 538 U.S. 600, 23 (2003)

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622

ILLINOIS ex rel. MADIGAN v. TELEMARKETING

ASSOCIATES, INC.

Opinion of the Court

charge. See Schaumburg, 444 U. S., at 636-637; Munson, 467 U. S., at 963; Riley, 487 U. S., at 798-799.11

The Illinois Attorney General here has not suggested that a charity must desist from using donations for information dissemination, advocacy, the promotion of public awareness, the production of advertising material, the development or enlargement of the charity's contributor base,12 and the like. Rather, she has alleged that Telemarketers attracted donations by misleading potential donors into believing that a substantial portion of their contributions would fund specific programs or services, knowing full well that was not the case. See supra, at 608-609, 618-619. Such representations remain false or misleading, however legitimate the other purposes for which the funds are in fact used.

We do not agree with Telemarketers that the Illinois Attorney General's fraud action is simply an end run around Riley's holding that fundraisers may not be required, in every telephone solicitation, to state the percentage of receipts the fundraiser would retain. See Brief for Respondents 14-19. It is one thing to compel every fundraiser to disclose its fee arrangements at the start of a telephone conversation, quite another to take fee arrangements into

11 Amicus Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), for example, states that its mission is "to communicate the message 'Don't Drink and Drive.' " Brief for Public Citizen, Inc., et al. as Amici Curiae 13. Telephone solicitors retained by MADD "reach millions of people a year, and each call educates the public about the tragedy of drunk driving, provides statistics and asks the customer to always designate a sober driver." Ibid. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Solicitations that described MADD's charitable mission would not be fraudulent simply because MADD devotes a large proportion of its resources to fundraising calls, for those calls themselves fulfill its advocacy/information dissemination mission.

12 This Court has consistently recognized that small or unpopular charities would be hindered by limitations on the portion of receipts they could devote to subscription building. See Secretary of State of Md. v. Joseph H. Munson Co., 467 U. S. 947, 967 (1984); Riley, 487 U. S., at 794.

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