Correspondence to the FCC re: preemption of local government as a source of regulation

Thu Jul 24 21:18:26 UTC 2014

For those interested, first in my morning's inbox is a letter from 
Oregon State Senator Bruce Starr (R-15, Hillsboro), and Nevada State 
Senator Debbie Smith (D-13), President and President-elect, 
respectively, of the National Conference of State Legislatures to FCC 
Chairman Thomas Wheeler, expressing their firm conviction as of Tuesday 
of this week that states have the constitutional authority to preempt 
municipalities in the domain of communications infrastructure.

The letter is not a legal memo, so it expresses little of any use. 
Anyone wanting a copy can probably find it on either the FCC or the NCSL 
websites.

Next is "by hand" of today from Jim Baller, retained by the Electrical 
Power Board of the City of Chatanooga, to the FCC. It is a 64pp legal 
memo constituting a "Petition for Removal of Barriers to Broadband 
Investment and Competition", that is, an argument that Section 706 of 
the Telecommunication Act of 1996 takes precedence over Tenn. Code Ann. 
§ 7-52-601 ("Section 601").

Here is the link: https://www.epb.net/downloads/legal/EPB-FCCPetition.pdf

I expect the second correspondence will make more interesting reading.

Eric