Connecticut low-power TV broadcaster Radio Communications Corp. wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn an FCC order creating a window for certain LPTV stations to upgrade to Class A status. “Review is required” because the FCC’s implementation of the Low-Power Protection Act “fails to protect, in a very substantial manner, Low Power Television stations and licenses (LPTV), and the newly created Class A stations, as required by Congress,” said a petition for review filed with the D.C. Circuit Jan. 10 and posted Thursday. The order, parts of which will take effect Feb. 9, would open a one-year window only for LPTV stations that broadcast a minimum of 18 hours a day, carry three hours per week of local programming and are located in markets of 95,000 households or fewer -- and that already met those requirements for the 90 days prior to the LPPA's Jan. 5, 2023, approval by Congress. The petition asks the court to review the order on an expedited basis, stay it, find it unlawful and rule that RCC isn’t precluded from applying for the window, that program content can’t be used to deny Class A licenses and that Class A stations can assert must-carry in their markets.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent back to district court a U.S. Chamber of Commerce challenge of Maryland’s digital ad tax. In an opinion Wednesday, the appeals court agreed with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore that the Tax Injunction Act (TIA) prevents federal courts from reviewing the tax itself but disagreed that a decision on a related pass-through ban was moot.

U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley for Southern Ohio in Columbus granted NetChoice’s motion for a temporary restraining order blocking Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) from enforcing the state’s Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act when it takes effect Jan. 15, said the judge’s signed opinion and order Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-00047).

The U.S. Supreme Court set Feb. 26 oral argument in NetChoice's and the Computer & Communications Industry Association's tandem First Amendment challenges to the Florida and Texas social media content moderation laws, said text-only entries Friday in dockets 22-277 and 22-555.

Microsoft's and OpenAI's generative AI (GenAI) tools rely on large-language models “that were built by copying and using” millions of New York Times copyrighted news articles, in violation of the Copyright Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other statutes, alleged the NYT’s complaint Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-11195) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.

The Insurance Marketing Coalition seeks 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court review of the FCC’s Dec. 18 order for implementing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to target and eliminate illegal robotexts, said IMC’s petition Thursday (docket 23-14125).

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should vacate the FCC’s Oct. 25 declaratory ruling that authorizes funding for Wi-Fi service and equipment on school buses under the commission’s E-rate program, said Maurine and Matthew Molak in a petition for review Wednesday (docket 23-60641). The Molaks said in the filing that the ruling will increase the E-rate program's “outlays” and “thereby directly increase" the amount of the federal universal service charge they pay each month as a line-item on their phone bill to fund E-rate costs.

The FCC didn't violate the nondelegation doctrine through its use of the Universal Service Administrative Co. to calculate quarterly USF contribution factors and administer USF programs, a federal court ruled Thursday. In denying Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC contribution factor (see 2306220062), the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals noted that "all USAC action is subordinate to the FCC, and the FCC retains ultimate decision-making power."

The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, denied the motion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to intervene in Murthy et al v. Missouri et al (docket 23-511), the SCOTUS review of the injunction that bars officials from the White House and four federal agencies from coercing or significantly encouraging social media to moderate their content. The injunction is stayed, pending the court’s resolution of its review.

Montana is enjoined from enforcing SB-419, its statewide TiTtok ban, when it takes effect Jan. 1, said an order late Thursday (docket 9:23-cv-00061) from U.S. District Judge Daniel Molloy in Missoula, granting a motion for a preliminary injunction from TikTok and several TikTok influencers.