WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court asked the Bush administration to weigh in on Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch’s appeal of a lower court ruling over whether mobile phone carriers must notify subscribers in advance of changes to service contracts. The lower court ruling—which Hatch is appealing—struck down a state wireless consumer law that alerted subscribers of changes in their contracts that can result in increased monthly bills.
That the Supreme Court has reached out to U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement is a potentially positive development for the mobile phone industry. Bush administration lawyers have been sympathetic to wireless industry pre-emption arguments in consumer and health litigation.
In December, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overturned a U.S. district court ruling upholding Minnesota’s wireless consumer-protection law. The 8th Circuit sided with the mobile-phone industry in concluding the state statute amounted to rate regulation and therefore was pre-empted by federal law.
The cell phone industry argues the 8th Circuit correctly interpreted a 1993 law prohibiting states from regulating rates of commercial wireless operators.
“There is not a single piece of legislative history that shows that Congress intended to adopt an exceedingly broad definition of the scope of pre-emption of state regulation of ‘rates charged,’” stated Hatch in a reply brief.
Hatch said 36 states and six national consumer groups filed briefs supporting his request to have the Supreme Court review the 8th Circuit’s decision.
The scope of the 1993 wireless federal pre-emption law is playing out in other major suits across the country and at the Federal Communications Commission.
