Here are last week’s most-read stories on court proceedings affecting telecom, tech and media that were covered in-depth by our sibling publication Communications Litigation Today. Current subscribers can click the reference number hyperlink or search the story title. Nonsubscribers can gain access by signing up for a complimentary preview.

Industry groups supported a March petition by the Competitive Carriers Association seeking tweaks to the FCC’s 911 outage reporting rules, approved 4-0 by commissioners last year (see 2211170051). APCO and the Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority (BRETSA) opposed the petition in the initial comment round (see 2306270045). But most groups waited for the reply round to weigh in.

A petition from the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) and former Fox executive Preston Padden asking the FCC to hold a hearing over and block a Fox-owned TV station’s license renewal isn’t likely to lead to agency action and would raise First Amendment concerns if it did, said attorneys we spoke with. Said MAD: “Owning a broadcast station is more than a business -- it is a public trust. Never before has the Commission been confronted with so much evidence attached to a petition that clearly shows that an FCC broadcast licensee undermined that trust." The FCC has historically stayed out of broadcaster editorial decisions and isn’t likely to change that, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero.

Support continued in comments from industry groups on the use of third-party caller ID authentication and other efforts to address Stir/Shaken implementation (see 2306060073). Some urged the FCC to clarify which levels of attestation should be allowed for authenticating calls. Reply comments were posted through Thursday in docket 17-97.

The U.S. has an opportunity to set AI rules that give American companies a competitive advantage over EU counterparts facing an overly prescriptive regulatory scheme, CTA Vice President-Emerging Technology Policy Doug Johnson said in a recent interview.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision last week in the student loan case, Biden v. Nebraska, didn’t touch on communications law, but it delves deeper into the "major questions doctrine" laid out a year ago in West Virginia v. EPA (see 2206300066). Legal experts told us the opinion, by Chief Justice John Roberts, appears to further expand when the doctrine may apply and moves the court further away from the Chevron doctrine. The case also has implications for the most controversial items addressed by the FCC, including net neutrality, experts said.

Ohio will limit wireless eligibility for broadband grants and require age verification on social media. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed a 2024-25 budget bill (HB-33) Tuesday including those two sections despite opposition from wireless and internet groups. The wireless restriction may misalign Ohio with federal requirements in the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said a Wireless ISP Association (WISPA) spokesperson Wednesday: “Fewer solutions never result in more flexibility.”

Geostationary orbit (GSO) traffic is growing, but it's far from triggering the concerns about congestion that are accompanying the low earth orbit (LEO) boom and the emergence of mega constellations there, space experts said. 2022 ended with 596 operational GSOs in orbit, up from 574 at 2021's end, 562 in 2020 and 554 in 2019, according to Satellite Industry Association data. "My guess is that there is still room for growth" in GSO, emailed Patrick Seltzer, University of Michigan astronomy research professor emeritus.

High-profile RF safety skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s entry in the 2024 Democratic primary is likely to draw more attention to the debate over RF radiation, but that’s not likely to mean FCC action on the item, according to interviews with academics and wireless attorneys. “I don’t think his candidacy will have a practical effect” on the agency, said Best Best attorney Tim Lay. The agency might get more pressure from the public, but “they have enough other things on their list,” he said. The agency “tends to take a long time” to act in RF radiation proceedings, said wireless attorney David Siddall.

This has been a quiet year for FCC’s Technological Advisory Council, which last met Dec. 8, but members remain focused on a few remaining reports, all focused on 6G, and the FCC is still focused on the group, a spokesperson said. The FCC announced last week TAC will meet Aug. 17 (see 2306300059), in what is expected to be the final meeting under its current charter. TAC met four times last year and has generally had quarterly meetings.