Congress never intended to prohibit state actions “for injuries resulting from cell phone use” when it enacted the Communications Act and the Telecommunications Act, said Frank Walker's family survivors, in an opposition Tuesday (docket 2:21-cv-00923) in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Lake Charles. Industry filed a motion in October to dismiss their complaint on grounds that their claims are preempted by federal law (see 2210180078).

T-Mobile seeks to cloak its "private concern” with a change to California USF “in the language of equity and solicitude for low-income Californians,” the California Public Utilities Commission said Monday at the U.S. District Court of Northern California. T-Mobile and subsidiaries seek a preliminary injunction to stop the CPUC’s October decision to switch to connections-based contribution from taking effect April 1 (see 2302020058). Opposing that motion in case 3:23-cv-00483, the CPUC said T-Mobile lacks standing and fails to show California’s connection-based surcharge violates federal law.

The Republican National Committee’s Oct. 21 complaint against Google (see 2210260080) “is about the market-dominant communications firm unlawfully preventing one of the two major national political parties from communicating its political and fundraising messaging to millions of Americans” through Gmail. So said the RNC’s opposition Monday (docket 2:22-cv-01904) in U.S. District Court for Eastern California in Sacramento to Google’s Jan. 23 motion to dismiss (see 2301240033).

A landowner who installed a padlock at the entrance of a cell tower site in Franklin County, Ohio, is in breach of a lease to STC Two, alleged a Friday complaint (docket (2:23-cv-00764) filed by STC Two and Global Signal in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio in Columbus.

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.

U.S. District Judge Christine O’Hearn for New Jersey in Camden signed an initial case management order Monday (docket 1:23-md-03055) appointing James Cecchi, founder and director of Carella Byrne's class-action practice in Roseland, New Jersey, as the plaintiffs’ interim lead counsel in the consolidated data breach cases against Samsung.

California’s age-appropriate social media design law should be thrown out because it’s preempted by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) (see 2212140063 and 2301310034), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the U.S. District Court for Northern California in an amicus brief Friday in support of NetChoice (docket 5:22-cv-08861).

The Telecommunications Act “expressly preserves local zoning authority and oversight concerning requests for permission to construct or install telecommunications facilities within local municipalities,” said Oyster Bay Cove, New York, in its answer Friday (docket 2:22-cv-07807) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip. It was responding to AT&T’s Dec. 22 complaint that the village and its planning and zoning appeals boards subjected AT&T to an “unreasonably protracted” application process to approve an 85-foot-tall cell tower, in violation of the TCA.

Crown Castle plans to call four fact witnesses and two expert witnesses in the consolidated bench trial with Extenet and Verizon that begins June 1 against the city of Rochester (see 2212200065), said the plaintiffs’ pretrial submissions Friday in U.S. District Court for Western New York.

JetBlue’s use of FullStory’s session replay codes during user browser sessions constitutes “looking over the shoulder” of website visitors, a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, said a Friday class action (docket 3:23-cv-00361) in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego.