The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is backing
Verizon's request that the Supreme Court review a $47 million fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission over alleged privacy violations.
In a friend-of-the-court brief filed late last week, the business organization argues that
the FCC violated Verizon's constitutional right to a jury trial.
"Rather than make its case before an Article III judge and jury as the Constitution requires, the FCC made the
case to itself, acting as the prosecutor, judge, and jury," the Chamber argues. "That violates the Seventh Amendment."
The papers come in a privacy dispute dating to 2020, when
the FCC proposed fining Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile for selling access to customers' geolocation data to aggregators that then resold the information.
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That matter was
pending until April 2024, when the FCC voted along partisan lines to impose fines of around $200 million total -- $47 million for Verizon, $57 million for AT&T and $92 million for T-Mobile.
The two Republican commissioners, including current chair Brendan Carr, dissented.
The carriers paid the fines, then sued to vacate them. Verizon sued in the 2nd Circuit, while T-Mobile brought
suit in the D.C. Circuit and AT&T sued in the 5th Circuit.
The carriers made similar arguments in the three appellate courts. Among other claims, the companies said the FCC
violated their right to a jury trial by acting as both prosecutor and judge.
The 2nd Circuit rejected Verizon's argument, ruling that its 7th Amendment right wasn't violated because it could have
refused to pay the fine, and then defended itself at a jury trial if the FCC pressed to collect the money.
"Assuming Verizon has a Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury,
those rights were not violated because it had, but chose to forgo, an opportunity for a ...trial," the appellate panel wrote.
The D.C. Circuit also rejected T-Mobile's argument and upheld its fine. But the 5th Circuit came to the
opposite conclusion, ruling that the FCC violated AT&T's right to a trial by jury.
Verizon recently asked the Supreme Court to review the 2nd Circuit's ruling. The company
contends it should have been able to make its case to a jury before the FCC ordered the company to pay a fine, not afterwards.
The Chamber of Commerce agrees.
"The forfeiture order constitutes an official government determination that Verizon violated the law and is liable for penalties," the organization writes. "But Verizon had a right to
have the judiciary -- with a jury -- make such a determination."
The group adds, "And now, to the public and the FCC alike, Verizon has been determined to be a lawbreaker."
For its part, the FCC has asked the Supreme Court to review
the 5th Circuit decision that vacated the fine imposed on AT&T, arguing that this ruling "severely impairs the agency’s ability to enforce federal communications law."
The FCC also contended in papers filed last
week that 2nd Circuit correctly upheld Verizon's fine, but nevertheless urged the court to take up Verizon's appeal and consolidate it with the AT&T matter.
The agency
proposed the fines after it came to light that a Missouri sheriff used geolocation data
provided by Securus Technology to track other law enforcement officers, without court orders. Securus obtained the location data from the phone carriers. Around one year later, Vice Media's
Motherboard detailed how a journalist was able to pay a “bounty hunter” $300 to track a phone's location to a neighborhood in Queens.
The major U.S. carriers have
said they no longer sell location data.