By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-10-18 The FCC has unanimously approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) looking into opening up the 2.5-GHz band for wireless broadband, but not without pushback from some educational broadband services (EBS) that use the band. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who is exiting the commission, did not participate so [...]
By Rodney Smolla… As this year’s Supreme Court term turns to the stretch run, one of the most interesting cases to watch will be Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky (Docket No. 16-1435). The case is a challenge to a Minnesota law challenging what citizens may wear when they go to polling places to vote. The [...]
Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) in the Supreme Court of the State of Idaho in Verity v. USA TODAY. The brief urges the court not to recognize a cause of action for “defamation by implication” based on the dissemination of concededly accurate facts about a matter of public concern. The case involves a [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-23-18 Both sides of the political spectrum have signaled in recent weeks the gloves are off when it comes to issues like privacy, fake news and Russian election meddling, with companies like Facebook – most prominently – Google, Amazon and others facing the strongest regulatory pushback in their relatively [...]
TMI staff report, 4-17-18 On April 17, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion in United States v. Microsoft, dismissing the case as moot, vacating the Second Circuit opinion, and remanding with instructions to vacate the district court opinion. The U.S. Justice Dept. had asked the High Court to dismiss the case as moot owing to passage of [...]
Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Courthouse News Service v. Brown. The brief argues that the public has a First Amendment right to contemporaneous access to newly filed civil complaints at the time of filing. Contemporaneous access benefits the public by promoting greater understanding [...]
By Carolyn Giardina, hollywoodreporter.com, 4-10-18 FCC chairman Ajit Pai – who was appointed to his role in January 2017 – on Tuesday emphasized his aim to "modernize" the nation's media rules during an address at NAB Show in Las Vegas. “That’s required a lot of work,” he said of several decisions that have been welcomed [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-10-18 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced an hours-long gauntlet of frequently unhappy legislators Tuesday (April 10), in the first of two Hill hearings on privacy and access to Facebook users data. Among the takeaways of that grilling was that he would support, at least in principle, requiring opt-in [...]
TMI staff report, 4-5-18 The U.S. Justice Dept. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss as moot U.S. v. Microsoft, dealing with the government's right to information stored on servers in foreign countries, owing to passage of the CLOUD Act by Congress on March 23. The Justice Dept. filed a Motion to Vacate the Judgment [...]
By Ashley Messenger... “Fake news” is a term that has been applied to many different things (including satire and genuine news reports that turn out to be incorrect). However, for purposes of this article, I am using the term to refer to speech that purports to be a true journalistic news report but in fact [...]