TCPA Tracker: July-September 2026

I. The Western District of Missouri Holds Text Messages Are Not Calls Under the TCPA

The United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri granted Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, finding that text messages are not calls under 47 U.S.C. § 227(c).

Plaintiff Jennifer Rush filed a putative class action against Defendant Selectquote Insurance Services, Inc. Plaintiff alleged that her telephone number was registered on the National Do Not Call Registry when Defendant sent two text messages without her consent. Defendant moved to dismiss the complaint.

The Western District of Missouri held that Plaintiff failed to state a claim because ​“text messages” are not ​“telephone calls” under § 227(c)(5). The court stated that the ordinary and common meaning of the term ​“call” when the TCPA was enacted in 1991 did not include text messages. The court relied on the Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services that a telephone was ​“an instrument for