Post-Vacated TCPA State-Overlay Calendar: H2 2026 and the Pre-Send State Screen

Quick answer: The regulatory calendar for outbound messaging in the second half of 2026 has moved past one-to-one federal consent — the Eleventh Circuit vacated that rule in January 2025 — but a set of state overlay laws (and the residual federal TCPA baseline) still govern every outbound send. This post walks the date-anchored state list that drives the calendar, the pre-send state-screen checklist the compose surface already flags, and how an operator configures the tenant-owned controls that satisfy it. Hand it to the buyer's legal team as the one-page calendar; the checklist section is what the operator follows on the compose screen.

This is the news-side anchor post that recaps the post-vacated calendar and operational matrix without duplicating the explainers. For the legal mechanics, read the vacatur explainer; for how the vacatur interacts with state overlays, read the bridge post; for the per-send window math, read the quiet-hours vs state-window post. This post is the calendar and the checklist — the artifact a buyer's compliance counsel reviews before a campaign goes live. Nothing here is legal advice; it is the state of the published statutes and a description of shipped tenant-owned controls on Devotel Orbit.

1. The post-vacated posture — what the calendar still governs

The FCC one-to-one consent rule — the December 2023 order that would have required comparison-shopping lead forms to name one seller per consent — was vacated by the Eleventh Circuit in IMC v. FCC (January 2025) before it took effect. The vacatur restored the pre-rule federal baseline; it did not remove it. The residual federal TCPA still requires prior express written consent for autodialed or prerecorded-voice telemarketing, the DNC registry and internal do-not-call rules still apply, and the federal 8 AM–9 PM recipient-local dialing window (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1), implementing the TCPA telephone-solicitation rules) still binds every US outbound send — platform-level, with no tenant toggle to relax it.

The vacatur's practical effect was narrow: it resolved whether a lead form must name a single seller. It touched nothing about timing, nothing about state law, and nothing about consent-record hygiene. The full vacatur explainer walks the order and the ruling; the bridge post connects the vacatur context to each tenant-owned control. The takeaway for the H2 2026 calendar: the federal landscape is settled, and the moving parts that remain are the state overlays.

Why tenant-owned controls are still the right answer: Orbit is the conduit and platform — it does not own, mandate, or globally gate regulatory compliance beyond the one platform-level federal dialing-window guard. Every other control is the tenant's to configure, and the platform's role is to surface the intersection, record the evidence, and let the operator decide. The H2 2026 calendar below names the states whose statutes tighten the federal baseline; the checklist section describes how the compose surface flags each one so the operator never guesses.

2. The H2 2026 state-overlay calendar

Seven US states run mini-TCPA statutes that are stricter than the federal baseline on calling windows, blocked days, or both. Federal law expressly does not preempt stricter state law (the TCPA's savings clause, 47 U.S.C. § 227(g)), so the binding rule for a recipient in one of these states is the intersection of the federal window and the state's overlay. The calendar below is the one-pager — statute citations, window hours, blocked days, and the date the statute was last amended as of this writing.

A few things to note about the calendar:

• Florida is the strictest overlay. The 8 PM cutoff and the Sunday ban together make Florida the state that defers the most sends — and it is also the third most-populous US state, so the operator sees this overlay frequently.
• Mississippi closes at 7 PM. It is the only overlay state with a pre-8 PM cutoff. A send at 7:30 PM recipient-local to a Mississippi number defers to the following morning.
• The other five overlays close at 8 PM. One hour tighter than the federal 9 PM floor; the effect is that 8–9 PM sends to these states are blocked while the same clock time to a non-overlay state dispatches.
• No overlay opens later than 8 AM. Every overlay state window opens at or after 8 AM, so the federal 8 AM floor governs the start of the window in all seven states.

The full reference — including how a recipient's state is resolved from the NANP area code, the enforcement split between ad-hoc and campaign/dialer voice, and the per-send deferral mechanics with next_allowed_at — lives on the state-calling-windows docs page. The quiet-hours vs state-window post walks the per-send deferral examples (Florida at 8:30 PM Tuesday, Mississippi at 6:45 PM Wednesday, Florida all-day Sunday).

States to watch

Two states have introduced mini-TCPA bills that are in committee as of mid-2026 and could reach enactment before the calendar year ends:

• Georgia — a bill modeled on the Florida statute (8 AM–8 PM, Sunday ban) passed one chamber in the 2025–2026 session. If enacted in the second half of the year, Georgia would become the eighth overlay state and the second with a Sunday ban.
• Tennessee — a narrower bill focused on prerecorded-voice consent rather than calling windows. If enacted, it would not change the window calendar but would add a consent-disclosure requirement for prerecorded-voice telemarketing.

Neither bill is law as of this writing. The tenant-owned posture handles both paths: if a new overlay is enacted, the state-calling-windows reference page and the compose-surface flag update to reflect it; the operator's configured gates remain the same.

3. The pre-send state-screen checklist

The compose surface on Orbit already flags the state-overlay intersection before a send dispatches. The operator sees a checklist, not a guess. The checklist below is what the compose surface presents per send — read it as the operator's pre-flight, and hand it to counsel as the evidence of what was checked.

Per-send checklist

1. Recipient state resolved. The recipient's NANP area code resolves to a USPS state abbreviation. If the area code is unmapped, the federal window applies. The resolved state is displayed on the compose card.
2. Overlay intersected. If the resolved state carries an overlay, the compose surface shows the intersected window — the state's window clamped by the federal 8 AM floor — and the statute citation. If the state has no overlay, the federal 8 AM–9 PM window applies.
3. Blocked day checked. If the state bans a day (Florida: Sunday), the compose surface flags the day and defers the send to the next allowed day at 8 AM recipient-local. The operator sees state_blocked_day with the statute citation.
4. Current time evaluated. The compose surface evaluates whether the current recipient-local time is inside the intersected window. If outside, the send defers with next_allowed_at set to the intersected reopening.
5. Consent record confirmed. The compose surface checks that the contact has a recorded consent with a source, timestamp, and scope before a marketing send dispatches. Contacts with no recorded consent are held under the tenant's unknown-marketing policy — refuse by default, or allow-with-logging if the tenant's lawful basis permits it. The consent-proof-first post details the record fields and the quarterly true-up rhythm.
6. Send classification applied. The compose surface distinguishes legal sends (transactional, service, informational) from marketing sends. The federal window applies to telemarketing; transactional and informational sends to a consented contact may dispatch outside the window depending on the tenant's classification policy. The operator sets the classification on the compose card; the platform records it in the audit trail.

How legal sends and marketing sends differentiate

The classification is the tenant's decision, not the platform's. On the compose surface, the operator selects a send class — marketing, transactional, service, or informational — and the pre-send gate chain evaluates the window, the overlay, and the consent policy against that class:

• Marketing sends are gated by the federal window, the state overlay, the consent record, the litigator scrub, and the tenant's quiet-hours configuration. A marketing send to an overlay state recipient outside the intersected window defers; a marketing send to a contact with no recorded consent is refused (or logged, per the tenant's policy).
• Transactional and service sends — order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders — are not telemarketing under the TCPA and are not gated by the federal window or the litigator scrub. The operator still sees the overlay intersection on the compose card so the classification decision is documented.
• Informational sends — account alerts, security notifications — are classified by the operator and may be exempted from the window gate per the tenant's classification policy. The classification is audited; the platform does not second-guess it.

The compose surface does not adjudicate the classification. It surfaces the intersection, defers or dispatches per the tenant's configured gates, and records the classification, the window evaluation, and the consent check in the send audit trail — the same trail the compliance evidence binder exports.

4. TCPA litigator scrub — the send-time safety net

Even a send that clears the state-overlay window can land on a professional plaintiff's number — a recipient whose model is receiving unsolicited A2P traffic and filing on the first message. The Litigator-Known scrub gates SMS and MMS sends against roughly 36 months of TCPA lawsuit history, refreshed daily. It is a tenant-opted gate (off by default; US operators turn it on per organization) that resolves at send time through a layered lookup: import-time contact flag, 24-hour verdict cache, and a live Numeracle call.

The scrub checks both the litigator list and the consent record: a send to a known-litigator number with no recorded consent is blocked outright; a send to a known litigator with a valid consent record dispatches with an audit entry recording the consent that allowed it. The litigator-scrub post covers the resolution chain, the re-scrub cadence, and the discovery-request exports.

The checklist interaction: the litigator scrub and the state-overlay gate are two separate layers in the pre-send chain. A send can clear the overlay and still be blocked by the scrub, or clear the scrub and still defer on the overlay. The operator sees the reason field per gate; the audit trail records both.

5. Frequently asked questions

What changed with the federal one-to-one consent rule?

The rule was vacated by the Eleventh Circuit in January 2025 before it took effect. The vacatur restored the pre-rule baseline: prior express written consent for autodialed telemarketing, the DNC registry, and the federal 8 AM–9 PM window — all still binding. Read the vacatur explainer for the full timeline.

Which states have mini-TCPA overlays in H2 2026?

Seven: Florida, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and West Virginia. Florida and Mississippi are the strictest — Florida bans Sunday outright, and Mississippi closes at 7 PM. See the calendar table in section 2.

Does the vacatur affect the state overlays?

No. The Eleventh Circuit vacated one FCC order; it did not reach a single state statute. The seven overlays apply exactly as they did before and after the vacatur. The bridge post connects the vacatur to each overlay.

How does the compose surface flag an overlay?

The compose card shows the recipient's resolved state, the intersected window (state overlay clamped by federal), the statute citation, and whether the current time is inside or outside the window. If the send is outside, it defers with next_allowed_at and the reason code.

Who owns the classification decision — marketing vs transactional?

The tenant. The operator selects the send class on the compose card; the platform gates per the tenant's configured policy and records the classification in the audit trail. The platform does not adjudicate whether a classification is correct — that determination stays with the tenant and its counsel.

What should a buyer's legal team review?

Hand counsel the calendar table in section 2, the checklist in section 3, and the state-calling-windows docs page. The checklist is what the operator follows; the calendar is the date-anchored regulatory matrix; the docs page is the full reference with the enforcement split and the NANP resolution pipeline.

6. The takeaway

The regulatory calendar for H2 2026 is seven state overlays on top of a settled federal baseline — nothing more, nothing less. The one-to-one consent rule is vacated and not pending; the baseline TCPA and the state mini-TCPAs are unchanged. The compose surface already flags every intersection, and the tenant-owned controls already defer, block, or dispatch per the operator's configuration. The checklist above is the pre-flight; the calendar table is the one-pager for counsel. Neither the calendar nor the checklist changed with the vacatur — and that stability is the point.

Published 7 October 2026.