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.
The Supreme Court denied Blanca Telephone’s Jan. 9 cert petition seeking enforcement of the 10th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s May 2021 mandate directing the FCC to collect an old USF debt only through “nonpunitive administrative offset” means, said a text-only entry (docket 22-645). Blanca alleged in a Jan. 16 supplement that the FCC retaliated against the ILEC’s cert petition by abruptly canceling its spectrum lease application for failure to make payment on a delinquent USF debt (see 2301190001). Blanca didn't comment Tuesday.
The Supreme Court circulated Blanca Telephone’s Jan. 9 cert petition for the justices’ Feb. 24 conference, said a text-only entry Wednesday in docket 22-645. Blanca is seeking SCOTUS enforcement of the 10th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s May 2021 mandate directing the FCC to collect an old USF debt only through “nonpunitive administrative offset” means. Blanca alleged in a Jan. 16 supplement the FCC retaliated against the ILEC’s cert petition by abruptly canceling its spectrum lease application for failure to make payment on a delinquent USF debt (see 2301190001).
The government waives its right to file a response to Blanca Telephone’s petition for cert at the Supreme Court, “unless requested to do so” by SCOTUS, said U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar in a waiver Tuesday (docket 22-0645). Blanca alleges the FCC retaliated against the ILEC days after it filed its cert petition to enforce the 10th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s May 2021 mandate directing the agency to collect an old USF debt only through “nonpunitive administrative offset” means (see 2301190001).
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.
The FCC retaliated against Blanca Telephone two days after the ILEC filed its petition for cert at the Supreme Court to enforce the 10th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s May 2021 mandate directing the agency to collect an old USF debt only through “nonpunitive administrative offset” means. So said Blanca in a supplement to that petition dated Jan. 16 and posted Wednesday (docket 22-645).
Challenges to the FCC’s USF program filed in three federal circuits by Consumers Research raise larger questions about the nondelegation doctrine and how the FCC interprets Section 254 of the Communications Act, lawyers said during an FCBA hybrid event Wednesday. The case could be headed to the Supreme Court, they said.
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.
Consumers’ Research's challenges to several of the FCC’s Universal Service Fund contribution factors may be an attempt to force a decision by the Supreme Court on the nondelegation doctrine, said academics and attorneys in interviews. Some said the group brought the exact same argument in multiple courts of appeals to forum shop and engineer a circuit split.
The Supreme Court appeared to raise questions about the future of the Chevron doctrine Wednesday, under which agencies like the FCC and FTC are afforded deference by the courts in their decisions as expert agencies. The unanimous court ruled in American Hospital Assn. v. Becerra that the Department of Health and Human Service’s decision to reduce yearly Medicare payments to hospitals as part of the 340B program was unlawful. The government raised Chevron deference, but the decision by Justice Brett Kavanaugh never addresses the doctrine. The case had been decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.