Government Asks Supreme Court Not to Hear Dish DEs' Complaint

The U.S. Solicitor General and the FCC asked the Supreme Court not to hear a complaint by Dish Network designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless about how the FCC handled AWS-3 auction bidding credits. The DEs filed a petition in January with the Supreme Court seeking writ of certiorari and appealing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's August ruling that upheld the FCC withholding credits because of the DEs’ close ties to Dish (see 1708290012). The D.C. Circuit “correctly upheld the FCC’s determination that petitioners were ineligible for very-small-business bidding credits -- available to businesses with less than $15 million in annual revenues -- because they are affiliates of, and subject to de facto control by, a Fortune 250 company with $13 billion in revenue that is attributable to petitioners under FCC rules,” said the federal brief. “Petitioners do not directly challenge the court of appeals’ conclusion that the FCC reasonably applied its relevant regulations and precedents, nor do they suggest that this holding conflicts with any decision of this Court or another court of appeals. Instead, they challenge … the court of appeals’ finding that petitioners had fair notice of how the FCC would apply those regulations and precedents to the circumstances of this case. That contention lacks merit.” The brief was filed in Supreme Court docket No. 17-1058.