T-Mobile would upend the 1996 Telecom Act principle of cooperative federalism if courts stopped California from moving to a connections-based USF contribution mechanism, argued the California Public Utilities Commission. In an answering brief Tuesday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the CPUC also disagreed that a flat-fee surcharge discriminates against federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) participants.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
Florida will lessen limits on telemarketing, potentially reducing the number of class-action lawsuits filed under the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA). Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill (HB-761) Thursday loosening state robocall restrictions the same week he announced a presidential run. The new law is likely to lessen autodialer litigation in a state that briefly had some of the tightest restrictions, said telemarketing lawyers.
A Kansas municipality chose not to continue litigation seeking franchise fees from Hulu and Netflix in light of a new state law. Kansas enacted a law last month exempting streaming TV services from paying franchise fees to local governments (see 2304140045). Fort Scott, Kansas, was appealing a lower court dismissing its lawsuit that seeks franchise fees from streaming services for the past three years and prospectively. The city decided to dismiss its appeal at the Kansas Appeals Court (case 22-125784-A) due to the new law, Fort Scott counsel Michael Fleming of Kapke Willerth told us Friday. The city could have maintained a claim to recoup past fees because the state law is prospective, but Fleming didn’t think the court would agree, he emailed: “Even if they had, there was nothing preventing the legislature from correcting their mistake next legislative session. No sense putting more and more time into a losing cause.”
The Maryland Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that the state’s digital ad tax is unconstitutional. In a four-page order Tuesday, the court agreed with the state that the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County lacked jurisdiction because plaintiffs Comcast and Verizon failed to exhaust all their administrative remedies. The Supreme Court vacated the lower court’s March 14, 2022, order denying the state’s motion to dismiss, an Oct. 21 order partly granting the ISPs’ motion for summary judgment and denying the state’s motion, and the Nov. 18 final declaratory judgment. The state high court remanded the action to the circuit court with directions to dismiss. Writing the order, Chief Justice Matthew Fader said a majority of the court concurred and a forthcoming opinion will explain reasons for the decision. The Maryland Supreme Court decided the case just days after questioning parties on the administrative remedy issue at oral argument (see 2305050044). In a statement, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) applauded the court “for acting quickly because the revenues generated by this tax will help us provide our children the best education possible for success.”
California’s shift to a state USF flat fee discriminates against people with less income, said minority advocates in a proposed amicus brief Monday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They supported T-Mobile and subsidiaries’ challenge to the CPUC order, which took effect last month, to set a $1.11 per-line surcharge to fund state USF (see 2305020038). “The low-income individuals who are the intended beneficiaries of the surcharge-funded program will be hardest hit,” wrote the Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), ALLvanza, NAACP's California Hawaii State Conference and LatinoJustice.
A Maryland Supreme Court justice asked why the panel should consider ISPs’ constitutional arguments against the state’s digital ad tax due to possible jurisdictional issues. The state high court held oral argument Friday on Maryland’s appeal of a lower court’s decision to strike down the tax as unconstitutional.
California’s connections-based method “is directly at odds” with the FCC’s revenue-based mechanism for USF contribution, T-Mobile and subsidiaries argued at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In an opening brief Monday, they urged the court to reverse a U.S. District Court for Northern California decision and direct the lower court to issue a preliminary injunction against the California Public Utilities Commission decision that took effect April 1.
A $30 million Kansas cap on state USF is constitutional, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled last week. The court affirmed a decision by the state’s Shawnee District Court in Blue Valley Tele-Communications v. Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC).
PHILADELPHIA -- Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) challenged state enforcers Tuesday to collaboratively address privacy and social media issues, speaking at a National Association of Attorneys General meeting. North Carolina AG Josh Stein (D) asked an algorithms panel later for suggestions on what states can do amid a rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
T-Mobile shows no dire situation warranting injunction of California’s shift to connections-based contribution for state USF, the California Public Utilities Commission said Friday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The agency urged the court to deny the carrier and its subsidiaries’ emergency request to freeze the CPUC order requiring a $1.11 monthly flat fee as of April 1. “No lives hang in the balance,” wrote the CPUC. “No one is threatened with deportation.”