FCC Bureau Denies Request for BDS Stay; Critics Urge 8th Circuit to Send Case to DC Circuit

FCC staff rejected a request for a regulatory stay of a business data service order, said a spokesman Monday, referring to a Wireline Bureau denial. Critics of the deregulatory BDS order that filed the request had said they would take FCC inaction as of June 30 as a denial. Last Monday, they filed for a court stay (see 1707050032), and Friday, they pressed the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to transfer the case to the D.C. Circuit, which is reviewing an AT&T challenge to a 2016 BDS tariff investigation order. Ad Hoc Telecom Users Committee, BT Americas, Granite Telecommunications, Incompas, Windstream and Sprint disputed opposition arguments of the FCC, Citizens Telecommunications and CenturyLink: that the two cases are unrelated, that the D.C. Circuit will dismiss (or remand) the AT&T tariff case, and Citizens' justification for 8th Circuit review. "The BDS Rate Order and BDS Tariff Order are as related as two agency decisions possibly can be," the critics replied (in Pacer) in Citizens Telecommunications v. FCC, No. 17-2296. "The Court should decline the opposing parties' invitation to prejudge the merits of the motions pending before the D.C. Circuit. And Citizens' explanation of why it chose to proceed in the Eighth Circuit merely reveals its motivation in this appeal: forum shopping."