RCN Telecom Services failed to design, construct, maintain and operate its website to be fully accessible to and independently usable by visually impaired or blind people, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, said a Friday class action (docket 1:23-cv-05543) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Brooklyn.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) urged the U.S. Supreme Court to “overturn” Chevron, or at least clarify that statutory silence doesn’t create “an ambiguity triggering Chevron deference,” in his amicus brief Monday (docket 22-451) supporting the petitioners in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The docket shows 46 amicus briefs were filed through Monday since the petitioners filed their opening brief July 17 (see 2307180033), including 31 briefs filed Monday alone.

The U.S. Supreme Court should “unequivocally abandon” the contemporary Chevron deference doctrine “because it contradicts Articles I, II, and III of the Constitution,” said an amicus brief (docket 22-451) in support of the petitioners in Loper Bright v. Raimondo submitted Monday by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., and 34 other Republican members of Congress.

Communications Litigation Today is tracking the following lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions:

Hytera Communications filed three pretrial motions Friday in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago (docket 1:20-cr-00688) to dismiss the government's theft of trade secrets criminal indictment against the company on various grounds.

Mark Walters, nationally syndicated talk show host of Armed American Radio, "fails to establish the basic elements of a defamation claim" when he alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT service defamed him to a reporter, said OpenAI’s motion to dismiss Friday (docket 1:23-cv-03122) in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta. OpenAI removed Walters’ June 2 defamation complaint to federal court July 14 from Gwinnett County Superior Court, and it’s basing its defense on disclosures to ChatGPT users that AI-generated content is “not always factual.”

Defendants Gary Cardone and Monica Eaton’s amended motion to dismiss a fraud complaint should be denied, plaintiffs the FTC and state of Florida responded (docket 8:23-cv-00796 ) Thursday in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa, saying their claims “easily satisfy the low threshold for defeating a motion to dismiss.”

A federal court refused to toss a telecom company’s complaint that the Washington, D.C., government violated federal competitive bidding rules. Allied Telecom Group claimed in March 2022 that two D.C. agencies contracted with each other for telecom services in violation of U.S. competitive bidding rules implementing the 1996 Telecom Act. Denying D.C.’s motion to dismiss in an opinion Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia disagreed with the city's arguments including that the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction and that Allied failed to state a preemption claim.

The FCC’s 2022 $518,000 forfeiture order against Gray Television over the 2020 buy of another broadcaster’s CBS affiliation in Anchorage doesn’t violate the First Amendment and doesn’t amount to the creation of new regulations without notice, the agency said in a brief filed Monday in Gray’s challenge of that forfeiture (docket 22-14274) in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2301040059).

RJ’s International Trading asserts U.S. District Court for Southern Florida erred when it denied the property owner’s motion for a permanent injunction enjoining Crown Castle South from digging long trenches beyond its easement, filling them with fiber cables and disrupting “the land surface above,” said RJ’s opening appellant's brief Friday (docket 23-10453) in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The excavation for the trenches resulted in uneven surfaces and flooding in the parking lot, preventing RJ’s from developing the property for a high-rise, multi-use project, it said.