The Conservative Political Action Coalition Foundation said in FCC comments Monday that a problem for consumers like unwanted robocalls doesn't necessarily justify “prescriptive regulatory intervention.” Other filers urged the agency to adopt proposals in a caller ID further NPRM approved by commissioners in October (see 2510280024). Comments were due Monday in docket 17-59.

The total number of cases filed with the U.S. Supreme Court was 3,856 in the 2024 term, which ended with the release of opinions on June 30, 2025, Chief Justice John Roberts said last week in the year-end report on the federal judiciary. That's compared with 4,233 cases in the 2023 term, he said. During the 2024 term, 73 cases were argued, up from 69 in 2023, according to the report. Total civil appeals with the federal courts of appeals were up 7% from FY 2024 to 22,812, and appeals of administrative agency decisions went up 12% to 5,611. The report said federal district courts docketed 303,563 civil cases in FY 2025, an increase of 4%.

If the U.S. Supreme Court rejects President Donald Trump’s firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and defies conventional wisdom (see 2512080047), it would go a long way to counter the prevailing view that the court is doing Trump’s bidding regardless of the law, argued Peter Shane, chair in law emeritus at Ohio State University, in Friday's Washington Monthly. If SCOTUS upholds the firing, Trump could also fire members of the FCC with whom he disagrees, including Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez.

The FCC summarized its “key wins in 2025” in a news release Tuesday. It “was a historic year for the FCC and I am proud of all the wins we were able to achieve for the American people,” said Chairman Brendan Carr in the release. “I want to express my thanks and appreciation to the agency’s talented staff for the great and efficient results that they delivered all year long.”

The FCC is doing what it can to promote the move of providers to IP-based networks and off copper lines, Wireline Bureau Chief Joseph Calascione said in a blog post Friday. He compared legacy networks to old Christmas lights “that would go out if a single bulb in the string was dead.” User-friendly features including “robocall mitigation and Next-Gen 911 [get] passed along seamlessly from one provider to another” but are stopped as soon as they hit the “dead-bulb” of old copper lines.

FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty elaborated on her vision for making U.S. networks more secure in an article published last week by the James Madison Institute’s Center for Technology and Innovation. The U.S. must engage with other nations to keep its own networks secure, she wrote. U.S. involvement in international telecommunications organizations like the ITU “must be revitalized,” she said. “U.S. representatives should be leading the conversation, shaping the standards, and setting the norms, not watching from the sidelines as adversaries fill the vacuum.”

The FCC is working to meet a congressional deadline, part of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (see 2512110051), to review whether to add Chinese drone maker DJI to its list of covered companies that present security risks, Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters after Thursday’s meeting.

911 and 988 can help those suffering from mental health crises during the holidays, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Zenji Nakazawa and Wireline Bureau Chief Joseph Calascione wrote in a blog post Tuesday. “A quick call or message to someone who may be alone or struggling can make a real difference,” they said. “When someone needs more than a friendly voice, help is close at hand through two essential three-digit numbers: 911 and 988.” If holiday pressures “are taking a toll on your mental health -- or you are concerned about someone else -- support is just as accessible through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which offers 24/7 confidential help,” Nakazawa and Calascione added. “No one expects to rely on 911 or 988 during the holidays. But these resources are here."

The FCC clarified Monday that the USF contribution factor for Q1 will be 37.6%, down from 38.1% in Q4. But it's higher than the earlier projection of 30.9% (see 2511100035), analyst Billy Jack Gregg noted in an email Tuesday. That increase came after the Universal Service Administrative Co. revised its estimates for the high-cost and low-income fund by a total of $219.2 million, Gregg said. Neither USAC nor the FCC has explained the reasons for the higher demand projections, he added.

Congress intended for the FCC to retain authority to relax the national TV-ownership cap as market conditions change, said Wiley Rein's Thomas Johnson, a former general counsel at the agency, in an ex parte letter posted in docket 17-318 Tuesday. The FCC “should not be duped” by “false-flag arguments” that the best reading of the text of the statute is that the FCC doesn’t have authority over the cap. Congress repeatedly used phrases allowing the FCC to modify its rules “because it was not mandating that these ownership limits be set in stone,” Johnson wrote. “Rather, these were one-time adjustments that Congress intended the FCC would continually revisit over time -- and indeed, that the FCC would modify or repeal these rules over time as the media marketplace became more competitive.” The national cap “places an anticompetitive thumb on the scale in favor of Big Tech. Relaxing or eliminating it would remove this artificial constraint on broadcasters’ ability to compete with today’s dominant media conglomerates.”