AT&T and Verizon got skeptical questions from Supreme Court justices today over their Seventh Amendment challenge to the FCC's $104 million in fines for selling users' real-time location data without consent. The carriers argued the FCC's penalty process denied them a jury trial. Justices pushed back hard: the carriers could have triggered a jury trial by simply refusing to pay and forcing the government into court.
The more consequential revelation came from a government lawyer, who told the justices that FCC fines are nonbinding and unenforceable without a subsequent court action. The FCC may now revise the language of its forfeiture orders to make that explicit. That admission reframes the entire penalty structure, not just for AT&T and Verizon, but for every company the FCC regulates.
Read the full piece for the oral argument details, because the back-and-forth between justices and counsel reveals exactly how shaky the FCC's enforcement posture actually is. The headline outcome of this case may matter less than the procedural concession the government made on the record.
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