Overview
- The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 on Thursday for the Federal Communications Commission, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion and Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting.
- The court held that FCC forfeiture orders are preliminary because they do not become enforceable until the Department of Justice files a lawsuit, so a jury trial right does not attach at the agency stage.
- The dispute arose after the FCC found carriers mishandled customer location data and assessed about $57 million against AT&T and roughly $47 million against Verizon, part of nearly $200 million in total fines across carriers.
- AT&T and Verizon paid the fines under protest and sued; the Supreme Court left unresolved whether those companies can recover payments and sent refund and remedial claims back to lower courts to decide.
- The decision preserves a common agency enforcement method, may shift enforcement practice by making it more viable for companies to refuse payment and await DOJ suits, and echoes prior high-court limits on in‑house agency adjudication.