The Petitioner’s initial brief in Carpenter v. U.S. has been filed with the Supreme Court. The appeal presents the following question for the Court: Whether the warrantless seizure and search of historical cell phone records revealing the location and movements of a cell phone user over the course of 127 days is permitted by the Fourth Amendment.
Representative Austin Scott (R-GA) has introduced the Stop Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act of 2017 (H.R. 3546). The bill, if passed, would prohibit all mobile wireless providers from receiving universal service fund support from the Lifeline program beginning in 2018. Representative Scott’s bill also contains a provision requiring 2018 universal service fund contributions to be collected as if wireless providers will receive the same amount of Lifeline support received in 2017. It then directs this excess funding to be deposited in the general fund of the U.S. Treasury for the sole purpose of deficit reduction. The bill has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Representative Scott has introduced similar versions of the bill in the last two congresses.
Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), along with six other co-sponsors have introduced the Email Privacy Act of 2017, which would amend the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by requiring law enforcement agents to obtain a warrant before acquiring the content of electronic messages.
A group of Republican Senators have introduced the Separation of Powers Restoration Act of 2017 to eliminate “Chevron deference” that reviewing courts give to administrative agency decisions. The bill, if passed, would amend Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act to require courts to decide all questions of law and interpret statutory provisions de novo. It has been referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The Federal Communications Commission has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that suggests ways to strengthen its existing slamming and cramming rules. Among other things, the FCC proposes to codify a rule banning misrepresentations on sales calls, and seeks comment on requiring carriers that rely on third-party verification to record the entirety of sales calls that precede a consumer’s preferred carrier switch.
The Federal Communications Commission has released a new proposal to better address ongoing problems in the completion of long-distance telephone calls to rural areas. In a recently released Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC recommends eliminating its existing data recording and reporting rules, and replacing them with new rules that require covered long-distance carriers to hold their intermediate providers accountable for call failures.
Microsoft has announced an ambitious plan to help bring broadband to the approximately 23.4 million rural Americans that lack service with speeds of 25 Mbps downstream. Through its new “Airband” initiative, Microsoft will partner with rural telecommunications companies by covering certain capital costs of deploying TV White Space networks. Microsoft has set a goal of bringing broadband connectivity to 2 million people in rural America by July 4, 2022.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has directed the Universal Service Administrative Company to institute a number of safeguards intended to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in the universal service Lifeline program. Chairman Pai’s command to clean up Lifeline was triggered in large part by a recent GAO report that discovered extensive fraud within the program. USAC is tasked with addressing problems related to ineligible subscribers, oversubscribed addresses, phantom subscribers, deceased subscribers, exact duplicates, and accountability of sales agents. Chairman Pai has asked USAC to report on its progress in implementing the safeguards by August 8, 2017.
As part of its recent report on various problems with the Lifeline program, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the money that makes up the universal service fund be moved from a private bank account to the U.S. Treasury. According to the GAO, one “benefit” of the move is that USF money could be used to offset federal debts. Is this a good idea?
The Federal Communications Commission has determined that an exclusive license to provide telecommunications services granted by the state of Hawaii to Sandwich Isles Communications, Inc. violates Section 253(a) of the Communications Act, and as a result, has preempted enforcement of the license.
