The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday suspended the briefing schedule on Verizon and MetroPCS’s challenge to the FCC’s December 2010 net neutrality “pending further order of the court. “Verizon and MetroPCS earlier Wednesday asked the court…
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for another two weeks, and 1,000 words beyond the 6,000 word limit, to file a joint reply brief on their appeal. The brief is due Thursday. But, the carriers noted, on Tuesday the court handed down its decision upholding the FCC’s data roaming rules (CD Dec 5 p1). The decision is related to the net neutrality appeal and also addresses “the meaning of the Communications Act’s bans on common carriage regulation and the Commission’s statutory authority under Title III of the Act, focusing on Section 303(b) as well as Sections 303(r) … 316,” the carriers said. “These issues are directly and substantially in controversy here.” The two “believe in good faith that they need a brief period of additional time and a modest amount of additional words in order properly to analyze and address the effect of [the data roaming decision] on the arguments in their reply briefs and ultimately on the case, so as to provide the Court with a consolidated analysis of the issues that avoids piecemeal briefing,” the filing said. MetroPCS also asked for a two-week delay and another 350 words beyond the current 2,000 word limit for its separate reply brief. Verizon and MetroPCS said the court could also suspend the briefing schedule, the step it took. The two cases are related, but the court may not draw the same conclusions in the net neutrality appeal, Jeff Silva, analyst at Medley Global Advisors, said in a research note. “It is true: There are similarities in regulatory and legal issues presented in both cases, particularly with respect to the reach and limits of FCC broadband jurisdiction as well as Verizon’s Fifth Amendment takings argument,” Silva wrote. “We would urge extreme caution, however, in any attempt to extract solid predictive value from the D.C. Circuit’s data roaming ruling with respect to the net neutrality appeal still before the court. These are two separate cases, involving varying legal theories, legal precedents, statutory underpinnings and regulatory constructions."