The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was picked to hear net neutrality repeal litigation, the FCC confirmed Thursday. The 9th Circuit was "randomly selected" by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, said an order a commission spokesman passed along after we inquired.

Federal judges upheld a district court denial of an AT&T motion to dismiss an FTC action alleging the carrier's mobility unit data-throttling plan is unfair and deceptive. The ruling appears to preserve FTC authority over the non-common-carrier activities of common carriers such as AT&T Mobility. An en banc panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said an FTC common-carrier exemption is "activity based," covering common-carrier activities only, not "status based," which would also cover non-common-carrier activities of common carriers.

Principles for President Donald Trump's infrastructure legislative proposal expected to be released Monday will include a promised focus on streamlining the federal environmental permitting process down to a maximum of two years for a wide range of projects that could include broadband, plus state block grants and federal matching funds, administration officials told reporters this weekend. The communications sector has been lobbying for an anticipated broadband title in the infrastructure package.

President Donald Trump's administration Tuesday said it sent the Senate four FTC nominees (see here). If they are all confirmed, both current commissioners would leave. Three of the picks had been expected, plus Delta Air Lines' Christine Wilson. The agency would be at its full complement only if existing Commissioner Terrell McSweeny were to stay, but her term would be filled by the incoming chairman. Earlier this week, the White House announced it was nominating current acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen to be a judge and she would leave once her successor arrives, and that nomination has been sent to the Senate.

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders Monday aimed at improving broadband deployments in rural areas of the U.S., saying at an American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Nashville that it will be the first of several actions aimed at changing the current situation. One of the orders is aimed at “streamlining and expediting requests” for rural broadband projects, he said. The other targets siting of tower facilities on Department of the Interior-owned lands. Both orders will ensure citizens in rural areas are “going to have great, great broadband,” Trump said. The texts of the orders weren't available.

The FCC released the long-awaited text of its new net neutrality regulations Thursday evening. Some had expected imminent release. The order was OK'd by commissioners on a party-line vote Dec. 14.

In the latest much-antiticpated consolidation in the communications industry, Disney confirmed it's buying much of 21st Century Fox. Disney plans to acquire the Twentieth Century Fox Film and Television studios and cable and international TV businesses for some $52.4 billion in stock and assume $13.7 billion of net debt, the buyer said this morning. 21st Century Fox will keep Fox Broadcasting, Fox News Channel and some other cable channels in a "newly listed company that will be spun off to its shareholders," Disney said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday at just past 11 a.m. EST he's circulating a draft "restoring internet freedom" order to be voted on at the Dec. 14 commissioners' meeting, abandoning the agency's "failed" 2015 "heavy-handed, utility-style" approach. The draft will be released Wednesday, he said. Already, stakeholders including Free Press and USTelecom began reacting.

Plans by DOJ to sue to block AT&T's buy of Time Warner are "a radical and inexplicable departure" from antitrust precedent, AT&T General Counsel David McAtee said Monday. In a statement, he said vertical mergers routinely get approved "because they benefit consumers without removing any competitor from the market" and there's no reason AT&T/TW should be any different. The telco said it will hold a news conference at 5:30 p.m. EST with CEO Randall Stephenson to discuss the litigation.

David Redl won a Senate nod to become the next NTIA head.