At the FCC's public meeting on January 13, the Commission's General Counsel Thomas Johnson presented on the accomplishments of the Office of the General Counsel during the past four years. As General Johnson sums things up in his presentation:
Our Litigation team… won in whole or in substantial part 28 out of 31 appeals (or 90%) filed against the agency. We achieved these results despite being challenged on several of this administration's highest-profile items. When we restored a light-touch regulatory framework to broadband in the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, we were challenged in court. Yet, after our defense of the Order—in which I participated in a marathon 5 1⁄2 hour oral argument on a snowy February day following a government shutdown—the D.C. Circuit upheld our reclassification of broadband as a Title I information service. When we modernized our approach to state and local infrastructure siting requirements to accelerate American leadership in 5G deployment, we were challenged in court. But after no fewer than three of my attorneys defended our 5G infrastructure orders before the Ninth Circuit, the court upheld nearly all of our reforms. When we took an innovative and thoughtful approach to reallocating critical "C-Band" spectrum for 5G services, we again were challenged in court. But the D.C. Circuit in short order rejected all legal challenges to our C-Band Order, clearing the way for a record-breaking auction of the spectrum.
Slides of the presentation are available here.
Prior FCC administrations have had notably less success in defending their policy agendas in court. The Commission's legal victories during the last four years demonstrates Chairman Ajit Pai's commitment to the rule of law as well as the able advocacy of General Johnson and his team. Congratulations to General Johnson and the Office for a job well done.
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