FCC v. AT&T: Date Argued - 04/21/26

Case Summary:The FCC fined major wireless carriers over $100 million for unlawfully selling access to customer location data to third parties without consent. AT&T received a $57 million fine, and Verizon received nearly $47 million. The fines stem from an investigation prompted by reports that a Missouri sheriff obtained customer location data through a third-party service. The dispute reached the Supreme Court due to a circuit split on whether the FCC's forfeiture orders violate the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. The Second Circuit upheld the FCC's fine, ruling that an initial penalty assessment is constitutional as long as the party can later challenge collection efforts in court. The Fifth Circuit ruled that the FCC's initial assessment of wrongdoing and fine deprived AT&T of its constitutional right to a jury trial. The carriers argued that the FCC's in-house proceedings created a "penalty-now-trial-later" system. The FCC argued that its orders are not binding because if a company refuses to pay, the agency must file a collection lawsuit in federal court where the company gets a full jury trial. The case arrived shortly after the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling in SEC v. Jarkesy, which invalidated the SEC's in-house civil fraud enforcement system for violating the Seventh Amendment.