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Some conservative direct marketers are crying foul over an appeals-court decision that bulk mailings by non-profit United Seniors Association Inc. probably misled senior citizens into thinking they were receiving official correspondence from the Social Security Administration.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia on Aug. 25 upheld a decision by a Social Security administrative law judge that envelopes mailed by the United Seniors Association used phrases such as “Social Security Alert” and “Social Security Information Enclosed” in violation of the Social Security Act. The court also upheld a $554,196 fine against USA Next, as the conservative lobbying group is also known.

The provision of Social Security law that USA Next was accused of violating bans using 19 phrases and letter combinations, such as “Federal Benefit Information” and “SSI,” on direct mail envelopes in ways that could confuse recipients into thinking that the Social Security Administration either sent or endorsed the mailings.

Other regulated phrases include “Social Security,” “Social Security System,” “Medicare,” “Death Benefits Update,” “Funeral Expenses,” “Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” “Final Supplemental Plan” and “Supplemental Security Income Program.”

The provision was added to Social Security law in 1988 to “preserve the line of communication between SSA and its recipients because of [Social Security’s] fear that if recipients were inundated with deceptive mailings, there would be an ‘increase[d]…likelihood that true Government mailings will be destroyed without being opened,’” the court’s decision said.

Mark J. Fitzgibbons, president of corporate and legal affairs for conservative direct response agency American Target Advertising, argues that the decision “may result in the government having a monopoly on certain words and phrases.”

He added that the appeals court’s decision means: “Congress can preserve lines of communications with citizens to the exclusion of direct mailers. Of all the decisions that have gone against the industry, this one has the potential to be the worst because it creates a new standard.”

In letters to the court, Fitzgibbons argued that since the statute limits political speech about public policy, the government must “prove that it has used the least restrictive means to accomplish its purported objective.”

Though conservative direct marketing pioneer Richard Viguerie founded Manassas, VA-based American Target Advertising in 1965, and co-founded USA Next in 1991, Fitzgibbons claims the two organizations are no longer linked. He said he wrote the court “because we want to be able to use the words ‘Social Security’ on envelopes.”

The court argued that the law only restricts the manner in which the words and phrases are used, not the words themselves.

USA Next did not immediately return a call for comment. It is unclear if USA Next plans to dispute this decision any further.