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FCC urges courts to ignore 5th Circuit ruling that agency can’t issue fines

arstechnica.com

FCC urges courts to ignore 5th Circuit ruling that agency can’t issue fines

The Federal Communications Commission is urging two federal appeals courts to disregard a 5th Circuit ruling that guts the agency's ability to issue financial penalties.

On April 17, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit granted an AT&T request to wipe out a $57 million fine for selling customer location data without consent. The conservative 5th Circuit court said the FCC "acted as prosecutor, jury, and judge," violating AT&T's Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.

The ruling wasn't a major surprise. The 5th Circuit said it was guided by the Supreme Court's June 2024 ruling in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, which held that "when the SEC seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial." After the Supreme Court's Jarkesy ruling, FCC Republican Nathan Simington vowed to vote against any fine imposed by the commission until its legal powers are clear.

9 comments
  • This is getting very little press outside of this. The FCC can no longer fine? WTF? AT&T must be very happy with that ruling last year.

    Now the Republicans want to bring fines back, probably to go after those they deem as enemies.

    • The FCC can no longer fine? WTF?

      Hell yes! Here comes the pirate radio station I've always wanted to run.

    • Yeah, I almost commented but couldn't figure out who to root for here. The 5th Circuit is basically a right-wing agenda rubber stamp machine, but the FCC, as led by Carr, is definitely not the good guy either.

      Is this a "let them fight" situation?

9 comments