CTIA Again Seeks Supreme Court Review of Berkeley RF Case

CTIA is back at the Supreme Court with its challenge of an RF disclosure law by Berkeley, California. The Supreme Court filed CTIA’s Monday petition for writ of certiorari in case No. 19-439, the court’s clerk said in a Wednesday notice (in Pacer) to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Answering a Supreme Court remand, the appeals court in July upheld for a second time Berkeley’s law that requires the wireless industry to provide a warning about possible dangers of overexposure to wireless frequencies (see 1907020059). The 9th Circuit expanded the scope of the Supreme Court’s 1985 Zauderer decision and “watered down its requirements, holding that all compelled speech about the speaker’s products is subject to rational-basis review,” said CTIA's petition. “These holdings substantially increase the government’s ability to dictate the speech of commercial actors, in direct conflict with the precedent of this Court and other circuits.” Berkeley expected CTIA’s appeal and is “evaluating the petition,” City Attorney Farimah Brown emailed Thursday.