DC Circuit Dismisses 2013 FCC Inmate Calling Order Case, Largely Vacates 2016 Recon Order
A court dispatched two cases involving FCC inmate calling service rate orders in light of litigant motions and a third commission order that was substantially overturned by the court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed as…
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moot challenges to a 2013 ICS order that set interim interstate rate caps, saying all parties agree the order "has been superseded by a subsequent agency order," said an order (in Pacer) of a three-judge panel Thursday in Securus Technologies v. FCC, No. 13-1280. It was referring to a 2015 order setting permanent interstate and intrastate rate limits. In Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461, the D.C. Circuit in June struck down much of that order, including the FCC's intrastate pricing authority, and upheld the agency's interstate pricing authority, but found the regulatory methodology "patently unreasonable" and remanded related decisions for further consideration (see 1706130047). The same panel issued a second order (in Pacer) Thursday that "summarily vacated insofar as it purports to set rate caps" a 2016 FCC reconsideration order that adjusted rate caps, noting all parties agreed they were "premised on the same legal framework and mathematical methodology that this court rejected" in Global Tel*Link. The panel remanded the rest of the recon order to the FCC for further consideration "in light of the disposition of this case" (Securus Technologies v. FCC, No. 16-1321) and the related cases.