ACA CONNECTS v. BONTA

No. 21-15430.

24 F.4th 1233 (2022)

ACA CONNECTS — America's Communications Association, FKA American Cable Association; CTIA — The Wireless Association; NCTA — The Internet & Television Association; USTelecom — The Broadband Association, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Rob BONTA, in his official capacity as Attorney General of California, Defendant-Appellee.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Filed January 28, 2022.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Scott H. Angstreich (argued), Leslie V. Pope , and Alex A. Parkinson , Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick PLLC, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiffs-Appellants CTIA — The Wireless Association and USTelecom — The Broadband Association.

Matthew A. Brill , James Tomberlin , Matthew T. Murchison , and Ryan S. Baasch , Latham & Watkins LLP, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiff-Appellant NCTA — The Internet & Television Association.

Jeffrey A. Lamken , MoloLamken LLP, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiff-Appellant ACA Connects — America's Communications Association.

P. Patty Li (argued), Sarah E. Kurtz , and John D. Echeverria , Deputy Attorneys General; Paul Stein and Heather B. Hoesterey , Supervising Deputy Attorneys General; Joshua Patashnik , Deputy Solicitor General; Thomas S. Patterson , Senior Assistant Attorney General; Rob Bonta , Attorney General; Attorney General's Office, San Francisco, California; for Defendant-Appellee.

Corbin K. Barthold , Berin Szóka , and James Dunstan , TechFreedom, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae TechFreedom.

Jeffrey M. Harris , Bryan Weir , and Tiffany H. Bates , Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, Arlington, Virginia; Tara S. Morrissey and Paul V. Lettow , U.S Chamber Litigation Center; for Amici Curiae Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, California Chamber of Commerce, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Telecommunications Industry Association, and CALinnovates.

Brian R. Hardy and Kathleen A. Wilde , Marquis Aurbach Coffing, Las Vegas, Nevada, for Amicus Curiae International Center for Law & Economics.

Christopher S. Yoo , University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pro se Amicus Curiae.

Kevin K. Russell , Goldstein & Russell PC, Bethesda, Maryland, for Amici Curiae Professors of Communications Law, and Media Democracy Fund.

Corynne McSherry and Kit Walsh , Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, California; Jacob A. Snow , ACLU Foundation of Northern California, San Francisco, California; Melissa Goodman and Zoe McKinney , ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; Andrew Jay Schwartzman , Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Washington, D.C.; for Amici Curiae Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU Foundation of Northern California, ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Access Humboldt, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Clean Money Campaign, Fight for the Future, Greenling Institute, iFixit Inc., Media Justice, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Oakland Privacy, Reddit Inc., Turn—The Utility Reform Network, and Writers Guild of America, West, Inc.

Letitia James , Attorney General; Barbara D. Underwood , Solicitor General; Steven C. Wu , Deputy Solicitor General; Office of the Attorney General, New York, New York; William Tong , Attorney General, Hartford, Connecticut; Kathleen Jennings , Attorney General, Wilmington, Delaware; Clare E. Connors , Attorney General, Honolulu, Hawai`i; Kwame Raoul , Attorney General, Chicago, Illinois; Aaron M. Frey , Attorney General, Augusta, Maine; Brian E. Frosh , Attorney General, Baltimore, Maryland; Maura Healey , Attorney General, Boston, Massachusetts; Dana Nessel , Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan; Keith Ellison , Attorney General, Saint Paul, Minnesota; Gurbir S. Grewal , Attorney General, Trenton, New Jersey; Hector Balderas , Attorney General, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Ellen F. Rosenblum , Attorney General, Salem, Oregon; Josh Shapiro , Attorney General, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Peter F. Neronha , Providence, Rhode Island; Thomas J. Donovan Jr. , Attorney General, Montpelier, Vermont; Robert W. Ferguson , Attorney General, Olympia, Washington; Joshua Kaul , Attorney General, Madison, Wisconsin; Karl A. Racine , Attorney General, Washington, D.C.; for Amici Curiae States of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and District of Columbia.

James R. Williams , County Counsel; Greta S. Hansen , Chief Assistant County Counsel; Raphael N. Rajendra and Meredith A. Johnson , Deputy County Counsel; Office of the County Counsel, San Jose, California; for Amici Curiae County of Santa Clara and Six Additional Local Governments.

Phillip R. Malone , Juelsgaard Intellectual Property and Innovation Clinic, Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School, Stanford, California; Michael J. Burstein , New York, New York; for Amici Curiae Internet Law Professors.

Thomas H. Vidal , Pryor Cashman LLP, Los Angeles, California, for Amici Curiae Access Now, Mozilla Corp., Public Knowledge, New America's Open Technology Institute, and Free Press.

Before: J. Clifford Wallace, Mary M. Schroeder, and Danielle J. Forrest, Circuit Judges.


OPINION

Overview

For the broadband internet industry, the critical regulatory issues that have emerged so far in this century concern access to the internet: what entities have access, on what terms, and to what extent access should be regulated. The administrative enthusiasm of the Federal Communications...

Let's get started

Leagle.com

Welcome to the leading source of independent legal reporting
Sign on now to see your case.
Or view more than 10 million decisions and orders.

  • Updated daily.
  • Uncompromising quality.
  • Complete, Accurate, Current.

Listed below are the cases that are cited in this Featured Case. Click the citation to see the full text of the cited case. Citations are also linked in the body of the Featured Case.

Cited Cases

  • No Cases Found

Listed below are those cases in which this Featured Case is cited. Click on the case name to see the full text of the citing case.

Citing Cases