A group of commercial fishing companies is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to do away with the Chevron doctrine, in a brief filed Monday in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Many observers consider SCOTUS likely to eliminate or severely limit Chevron deference (see 2306290063). The lead lawyer on the brief (docket 22-451) is Paul Clement, U.S. solicitor general under George W. Bush.
Communications Litigation Today is tracking the following lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions:
U.S. consumers unknowingly have been transmitting sensitive financial information to Google when they file their taxes online on H&R Block, TaxAct and TaxSlayer, said a privacy class action (docket 5:23-cv-03527) Friday in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose.
If allowed to go into effect, SB-396, Arkansas’ social media age verification law (see 2307100005), will require all users -- including adults -- to verify their age before they can access their social media accounts, or create new ones, said a Friday amici curiae brief (docket 5:23-cv-05105) filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in support of NetChoice’s motion for preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for Western Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a Friday opinion (docket 22-2392), affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in Verizon’s favor, ruling that the denial by White Deer Township in central Pennsylvania of Verizon’s applications for seven variances to build a 195-foot monopole cell tower had the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services, in violation of the Telecommunications Act. Verizon leased 2,600 square feet of a 1.9-acre property to build the tower to fill a four-mile gap in wireless coverage along a desolate stretch of Interstate 80.
The submitted FCC and AT&T briefs in the 4th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court review of the commission’s Nov. 18 pole attachment order (see 2307070013) “ably demonstrate” that Duke Energy’s challenges to the order “lack merit,” said USTelecom’s 4th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amicus brief Thursday in support of the FCC and in opposition to Duke. The commission’s order found the pole attachment rates Duke was charging AT&T were unjust and unreasonable.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) doesn’t preempt children from suing Google, YouTube and content creators for violating child privacy laws at the state level, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in 21-16281.
Plaintiff Jane Doe had notice that Kaiser Permanente used third-party software to collect certain website information, said defendant Microsoft Thursday in its motion to dismiss (docket 2:23-cv-00718) a privacy class action against it and Qualtrics in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle.
T-Mobile filed suit Thursday against Oyster Bay, New York, for the town's “unreasonable and unsupportable denial” of T-Mobile’s application for a rear yard variance necessary to install and operate a wireless telecom facility to remedy a “significant gap in wireless services in the area.” The town also imposed “unreasonable, excessive, and prohibitive escrow charges and application fees,” alleged T-Mobile’s complaint (docket 2:23-cv-05339) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip.
The Washington Supreme Court agreed to hear Assurance Wireless' petition for review of a lower court ruling that rejected its argument that the carrier's Lifeline services didn't involve a retail sale. The case (101873-8) is to be heard during the court's fall term. Assurance said in an April petition the state's retail sales tax for telecom services isn't possible for its Lifeline service because that service is free to eligible consumers, and the carrier "cannot be held secondarily liable for failing to collect sales tax from an unidentified buyer."