• by Wendy Davis , 7 hours ago

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a dispute over the Federal Communications Commission's power to fine telecoms over alleged privacy violations.

The court's move, announced late last week, comes in a battle 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.

That matter remained in limbo 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 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 allegedly obtained the location data from the phone carriers.

The telecoms 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 argued in all three circuit courts that the FCC unconstitutionally acted as prosecutor and judge, in violation of the 7th Amendment right to a trial by jury.

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.

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 last year asked the Supreme Court to review the 2nd Circuit's ruling, and the FCC urged the Supreme Court to take up the 5th Circuit's ruling.

The Supreme Court granted both requests and ordered the cases consolidated. The court hasn't yet said when it will hear arguments in the matter.