It's "well-established" that excessive municipal fees “can hamper communications infrastructure deployment” in violation of Sections 253 and 332 of the Communications Act, said CTIA and USTelecom in a 10th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amicus brief Friday (docket 22-2131). It supports NMSurf’s appeal to reverse the district court’s upholding of a local telecom law requiring a 2% gross revenue-based franchise fee in Santa Fe (see 2211230073).

Meta “impermissibly censored” the expressions, and the ability to receive the expressions of other members, of Wise Guys I and Wise Guys II, self-described Facebook users “who enjoy sharing their opinions regarding national and world events,” alleged a First Amendment complaint Friday (docket 3:23-cv-217) in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas in Dallas.

Central Telecom Long Distance engages in “slamming, cramming, and unclear and insufficiently specific billing practices,” in violation of the Communications Act, alleged a DOJ complaint Monday (docket 23-cv-259) against the interexchange carrier in U.S. District Court for Colorado in Denver.

Plaintiff Dennis Gromov’s fraud class action against Belkin for false advertising and breach of warranty should be dismissed in its entirety without leave to amend because he didn't identify a misleading or deceptive act, said the defendant's motion Friday (docket 1:22-cv-6918) to dismiss in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago.

Defendant T-Mobile’s alleged stonewalling in the false-ring tone class action against the carrier and its alleged co-conspirator Intelliquent (see 2301240023) sparked plaintiffs Craigville Telephone and Consolidated to ask U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman for Northern Illinois in Chicago to appoint a special pretrial master to “assist the parties to manage discovery for the remainder of this case,” said their memorandum of law Thursday (docket 1:19-cv-07190) in support of their motion.

A Texas appeals court should affirm a lower court’s ruling that a 2017 small-cells law is constitutional, urged Texas this month. Houston and other cities asked the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals to instead uphold the lower court’s other finding that a 2019 right-of-way (ROW) law was unconstitutional. In Jan. 20 briefs in case 03-22-00524-CV, they disagreed with each other’s November briefs in which Texas urged the court to reverse on the 2019 law while cities sought reversal of the decision on the 2017 statute (see 2211230015). Texas and cities agreed there should be oral argument.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act “is no shield,” for social media companies’ conduct, said a public nuisance and negligence complaint (docket 2:23-cv-172) filed against the top social media companies Thursday by Mesa Public Schools, the largest public school district in Arizona with 58,000 students in 78 schools.

There's profound inconsistency among the appellate courts over whether certain FCC guidelines “impliedly preempt state-law claims about cellphone safety,” and the Supreme Court has a “golden opportunity” to bring uniformity to the decision-making, said two dozen iPhone users in a Jan. 23 cert petition docketed Thursday (docket 22-698). The petition seeks a reversal of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Aug. 26 opinion, affirming the district court’s summary judgment for Apple, based on federal law preemption of the state-law claims.

Newsweek Digital tracks and discloses to Facebook its subscribers’ viewed video media, including their Facebook ID, without their consent, alleged a Wednesday Video Privacy Protection Act class action (1:23-cv-643) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.

U.S. District Judge John Tharp for Northern Illinois in Chicago appeared during a telephone status hearing Thursday to have resolved a longstanding impasse between DOJ and defendant Hytera Communications over the government’s request for Hytera to disclose the identities of its expert witnesses before they can get access to sensitive discovery materials. Tharp said at the end of the hearing he thinks Hytera had the better argument.