The FTC violated the Constitution and exceeded its rulemaking authority when it issued a rule aimed at making it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NCTA, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and other industry groups said in three different lawsuits filed Tuesday in three separate appeals courts.

The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:

District of Columbia emergency officials opposed a D.C. Council bill aimed at increasing transparency at the Office of Unified Communications 911 center. During a livestreamed Judiciary and Public Safety Committee hearing Wednesday, OUC Director Heather McGaffin raised privacy concerns about the bill, noting calls from people in sensitive situations might be made public. However, Dave Statter, a former journalist who regularly blogs about OUC errors, said privacy concerns are overblown and more transparency could help. But he said the bill doesn't go far enough.

Because China makes 90% of anode and cathode materials, and dominates processing of critical minerals, no matter where they are mined, recent hikes in tariffs on Chinese minerals will do little, trade experts agreed.

The California Public Utilities Commission is mulling ways it can support broadband adoption in the wake of the federal affordable connectivity (ACP) program ending, Communications Division Director Rob Osborn said during the California Broadband Council’s meeting Tuesday. The state is making significant progress advancing its broadband-for-all goals, reported Scott Adams, deputy director of the California Department of Technology (CDT) broadband and digital literacy office.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to grant certiorari earlier this month in a case from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, could have implications beyond the FCC’s legal interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, legal experts told us. SCOTUS began its current term Oct. 7.

Instagram on Thursday launched an educational program aimed at helping teens recognize sextortion scams. Meta partnered with child safety experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Thorn to create the program. Well-known influencers will help raise awareness of the effort. The rollout includes measures for hiding follower lists from potential scammers, screenshot bans for certain direct message images and expansion of nudity protections. NCMEC Senior Vice President John Shehan said, “By equipping young people with knowledge and directing them to resources like NCMEC’s CyberTipline, and Take it Down, we can better protect them from falling victim to online exploitation.” However, Fairplay said Meta’s campaign is another attempt at delaying congressional action on kids’ safety. “If Meta really cares ... it should stop trying to obstruct the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require platforms to prevent and mitigate child sexual abuse and sextortion from day one, not just when the company is trying to ward off regulation,” Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin said.

A domestic trade group for catfish farmers brought a motion for judgment Oct. 15 before the Court of International Trade arguing that the Commerce Department should have at least applied partial adverse facts available to a mandatory respondent in its 2020-21 review of frozen fish fillets from Vietnam (Catfish Farmers of America v. U.S., CIT # 24-00082).

In talks with corporate governance lawyers, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington has begun promoting how the FCC's cyber-trust mark could help reduce operations costs, making suppliers from trusted nations more competitive against Chinese suppliers. In an extensive interview with Communications Daily last month, Simington also discussed "smart and targeted" reforms of linear video distribution regulation (see 2409120059), his new practice of dissenting from monetary forfeitures (see 2409060054) and how he sees U.S. industrial policy in the context of China (see 2408200041). In addition, he touched on incentivizing commercial orbital debris removal. The following transcript was edited for length and clarity.

Although the regulatory status of broadband is “in flux,” the U.S. Supreme Court shouldn’t further delay New York state’s enforcement of a 2021 affordable broadband law, the state’s Attorney General Letitia James (D) said Tuesday. James submitted briefs in case 24-161 opposing ISP groups’ petition for a writ of certiorari and application seeking a stay of the New York Affordable Broadband Act (ABA). “The equities and the public interest weigh heavily in favor of allowing the ABA -- duly enacted consumer-protection legislation that aids the State’s most vulnerable residents -- to take effect without further delay,” wrote James.