Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Following last week’s oral argument in two Chevron cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (see 2401170074), the future of the doctrine appears in doubt.
Communications Litigation Today is tracking the below lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions. Cases marked with an * were terminated since the last update. Cases in bold are new since the last update.
The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition seeks leave to intervene on the FCC’s behalf in opposing a petition asking that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals review the commission's Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing funding for Wi-Fi service and equipment on school buses under the agency's E-rate program (see 2312200040), said the coalition’s unopposed motion Friday (docket 23-60641).
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Association of Business and the Longview (Texas) Chamber of Commerce sued the FCC in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the agency's rules defining "digital discrimination of access." The rules were adopted by a 3-2 vote during a November agency meeting. "The Order purports to implement" part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act "by adopting a definition of 'digital discrimination of access' to broadband internet service that encompasses '[p]olicies or practices, not justified by genuine issues of technical or economic feasibility,' that result in disparate treatment or disparate impact," the groups said in the filing. The suit, filed Friday, was posted Monday.
The FCC seeks to dismiss the petition for review filed Dec. 21 by the Insurance Marketing Coalition (see 2312220059) because it is “premature,” and the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals therefore lacks appellate jurisdiction to consider it, said the commission’s motion Friday (docket 23-14125).
Connecticut low-power TV broadcaster Radio Communications wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn an FCC order creating a window for certain LPTV stations to upgrade to Class A status. “Review is required” because the FCC’s implementation of the Low-Power Protection Act “fails to protect, in a very substantial manner," LPTV stations and licenses, and the newly created Class A stations, as Congress required, said a petition for review filed with the D.C. Circuit Jan. 10 and posted Thursday (docket 24-1004). The order, parts of which will take effect Feb. 9, would open a one-year window only for LPTV stations that broadcast a minimum of 18 hours a day, carry three hours per week of local programming and are located in markets of 95,000 households or fewer -- and that already met those requirements 90 days prior to the LPPA's Jan. 5, 2023, approval by Congress. LPTV groups were critical of the LPPA and the subsequent FCC order for allowing only a few stations to convert to Class A (see 2312080043). The petition asks the court to review the order on an expedited basis, stay it, find it unlawful and rule that RCC isn’t precluded from applying for the window, that program content can’t be used to deny Class A licenses and that Class A stations can assert must-carry in their markets. Radio Communications CEO Robert Knapp told us the company plans to ask the court for summary judgment against the FCC.
Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Plaintiff Jesus Marcos lost “hundreds of thousands of dollars in money and cryptocurrency” as a result of T-Mobile’s negligence in a SIM swap, alleged his 18-count fraud complaint Tuesday (docket 5:24-cv-00085) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Riverside.
Wisconsin Bell failed to persuade the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant its petition for an en banc rehearing of an August decision reversing and remanding a lower court ruling regarding how much the company charged schools and libraries through the FCC's E-rate program (see 2308020067). The opinion, released Tuesday in case 22-1515, noted that no judge sought a vote for a rehearing.