# OPS-096 — A state may black out whole days

> Where a state enacts holiday blackout dates for solicitations, no solicitation may be sent on them.

- **Rule ID:** OPS-096
- **Layer:** Operational (`OPERATIONAL`)
- **Checks:** `send date against a state holiday calendar`
- **Severity:** LOW — Best practice. Worth fixing, rarely fatal on its own.
- **When it bites:** Falls due after approval, once you are live and sending
- **How it is detected:** External record we cannot query — reported as a warning to verify
- **Fix type:** Wait on an external system or a required interval
- **Required by:** state law (UT)
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-096/

## Why this rule exists

A blackout is not a narrower window, it is a day on which the send must not happen at all — so a scheduler that only knows about hours will happily run a campaign into a prohibited day. These are recent and expanding statutes, which means a programme built correctly two years ago can become non-compliant without anything about it changing.

## How to fix it

Hold a blackout calendar alongside the window table and check the date as well as the time before scheduling. Done when a campaign scheduled across a blackout date skips the affected recipients rather than the whole send.

## Check this yourself

**Do you hold a current state holiday blackout calendar, and when was it last reviewed?**

1. Subscribe to a compliance feed or review the statutes annually — this is the rule most likely to have changed since anybody last looked.
2. Check the date as well as the time before scheduling, so a campaign crossing a blackout skips the affected recipients rather than the whole send.

*What wrong looks like:* A blackout is a day on which the send must not happen at all, so an hours-only scheduler runs the campaign into it. A programme built correctly two years ago becomes non-compliant with nothing about it changing.

## Notes

State calendars we do not hold, and a list that changes by legislature. What the user has to do is subscribe to a compliance feed or review the statutes annually — this is the rule most likely to have changed since anybody last looked.