The 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court should reverse the FCC's ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040) by interpreting the Communications Act “in accordance with its ordinary meaning,” Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (Texas) and six other Republican senators wrote in an amicus brief Tuesday (docket 23-60641). The brief supports Maurine and Matthew Molak's petition to defeat the Oct. 25 declaratory ruling (see 2404030010).

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

A week before Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were to stand trial before a jury on damages for their roles in the robocall campaign to suppress Black citizens' mail-in votes in the run-up to the 2020 election (see 2312040022), they and the 10 plaintiffs in the case against them, including New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), proposed a consent decree Monday (docket 1:20-cv-08668) that would avert that trial.

Coppe Healthcare Solutions failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, said defendant Brightsky, parent company to Simplifi, in its answer (docket 2:24-cv-00088) and affirmative defenses to Coppe’s negligence complaint Monday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

HP’s claim that it’s entitled to dismissal of an 80-count antitrust and consumer fraud class action depends on "applying pleading standards that have no basis in the law of this circuit," said the response Monday (docket 1:24-cv-00164) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago from the 11 plaintiffs in opposition to HP's motion to dismiss.

The federal antitrust laws strictly limit who may bring damages claims to only those injured directly by anticompetitive behavior, said T-Mobile’s petition for interlocutory review Monday (docket 24-8013) in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Audero granted plaintiff Damien Sabella’s ex parte application for expedited discovery in his fraud case against 10 John Does in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles, said her Monday order (docket 2:23-cv-09907).

Communications Litigation Today is tracking the below lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions. Cases marked with an * were terminated since the last update. Cases in bold are new since the last update.

The FCC's Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040) is an "unlawful exercise" of the commission's statutory authority "and may damage American students' health and diminish their educational achievement," said Michigan State University law professor Adam Candeub in a 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amicus brief Friday (docket 23-60641).

Pewaukee, Wisconsin, “repeatedly informed” AT&T of the “problems, difficulties and failures” it had using Simplifi Connect II routers on AT&T’s FirstNet network to communicate with its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, said plaintiff Coppe Healthcare Solutions in its memorandum of law (docket 2:24-cv-00088) in opposition to AT&T’s motion to dismiss a negligence suit.