John Eggerton

In a first for the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, oral argument in a major abortion case, Garza vs. Hargan Oct. 20 will be live streamed after Fix the Court, which advocates for greater access to federal courts, made the request. Chief Judge Merrick Garland issued the decision in a one-sentence letter to Fix the Court executive director Gabe Roth, saying simply: "Thank you for your letter of today's date, requesting that the court provide a live audio feed of arguments  in Garza v. Hargan, 17-5236, tomorrow.

Three dozen organizations, including Common Cause, the Communications Workers of America, and the Benton Foundation, have sent letters to individual members of the Senate asking them to preserve the Lifeline communications subsidy program from what they say are Federal Communications Commission efforts to undermine it. The Lifeline program is part of the Universal Service Fund subsidy and is directed at those who can't afford access to basic communications—originally phone and increasingly internet. In the letter, the groups dub the program a "successful public-private partnership." "While critics have focused on alleged fraud and abuse as a reason to eliminate or limit the program, these critiques ignore the reforms already adopted that safeguard the program," the groups said. "Lifeline modernization involved sweeping reforms, including minimum standards obligations, additional cost-control measures, and a budget of $2.25 billion annually. These reforms are rapidly being implemented and are the most effective way to safeguard the program and ensure that program funds go to families in need. Implementation of the newly adopted independent eligibility verifier begins this year and will be complete by the end of 2019." [The Benton Foundation was a signatory on the letter]

Fight for the Future is claiming Comcast is trying to censor pro-network neutrality website Comcastroturf.com.

The site encourages users to investigate what Fight for the Future says are fake anti-net neutrality comments filed in the Federal Communications Commission docket and "likely" funded by the company, though it does not elaborate on that assertion. The group published a copy of a cease and desist letter that appears to be a legal representative of Comcast. The letter claims the domain name violates Comcast's intellectual property rights because it is "identical or confusingly similar" to Comcast's protected trademark because it "sounds the same, looks the same and is spelled similarly to Comcast." The letter says Comcast is ready to resolve the issue amicably and "without pursuing its claims for damages" but only if the domain is turned over to Comcast ASAP.

Sens Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Tom Udall (D-NM) have asked the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the state of the media.

The senators cited Trump Administration hostility toward the press, plus the proliferation of "fake news," for wanting the committee to hold the hearing—they said the last committee hearing on the state of journalism was in 2009 and that a new look was needed to "refresh the record."

“The journalism industry is grappling with a changing media landscape: from the changing dynamics of how people access news, to changing financial calculations, to the proliferation of so-called ‘fake news’ (both actual disinformation campaigns and the use of the term to slander legitimate news reporting), to a challenging relationship between news media and the Executive branch,” the senators wrote in a letter to Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) “There have been a series of recent incidents in which hostility has been exercised against members of the press by members of the Administration, including just last week when a reporter was allegedly manhandled and threatened by security guards after a news conference at the Federal Communications Commission headquarters.”

The Republican National Committee joined with President Donald Trump to brand the recent spate of news about the President as a media witch hunt.

Under the subject line "More Sabotage," the Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee composed of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., and the RNC sent an e-mail solicitation seeking money to fight that witch hunt. "Democrat hacks posing as journalists and unelected bureaucrats have incited a witch hunt to try and obstruct the American voters’ agenda," said the e-mail. "This is a sad moment for our republic." The e-mail suggested that the witch hunt was the product of the enemies of the president's attempts to shake up Washington and swamp-dwellers who don't want to be drained.

Conservative group Judicial Watch has filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission to get documents it says the commission has not produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. On the same day the FCC was voting to launch the rollback of Title II classification, the group said the commission had failed to turn over records related to the 2015 Internet Order that imposed Title II and the White House's influence on the decision. The suit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia after the group says the FCC failed to respond to two FOIA requests. Both those requests were made under new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who has also accused the White House of pressuring the FCC to move to Title II, including referring to the Open Internet order as Obama's rules.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) took to the Senate floor to say it was time to put the fear-mongering aside and protect the open internet with bipartisan legislation, the kind of legislation Chairman Thune said he had offered but then-chairman Tom Wheeler rejected. That came just before the Federal Communications Commission was to vote on the proposal to roll back Title II classification.

Chairman Thune said there are many upset about how FCC chairman Ajit Pai is proceeding—with the Title II rollback—just as he was when the FCC reclassified under Title II when he previously suggested legislation was the better route. Chairman Thune said the vote to start the Title II rollback did not create certainty for the internet and that there was more work to do. He said there was an opportunity for Congress to provide clear rules of the road for the internet after talking with all stakeholders.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was quick to condemn the comments, attributed to President Donald Trump, that then FBI director James Comey should be looking to put reporters in prison for publishing classified information. The Reporters Committee was citing the New York Times story that Comey had taken contemporaneous notes about a conversation where the President had suggested Comey back off investigating former national security advisor Gen. Michael Flynn over contacts with Russia but should be investigating leaks and potentially punishing journalists.

"The comments attributed to President Trump cross a dangerous line," said Reporters Committee executive director Bruce Brown. "But no president gets to jail journalists. Reporters are protected by judges and juries, by a congress that relies on them to stay informed, and by a Justice Department that for decades has honored the role of a free press by spurning prosecutions of journalists for publishing leaks of classified information."

Jenner & Block has grabbed a handful of former top Federal Communications Commission officials for the law firm's communications, internet and technology practice. Earlier in May, Howard Symons, former general counsel of the FCC under Democratic chairman Tom Wheeler, joined the practice as a partner. The firm says it has also added Roger Sherman, former chief of the Wireless Bureau, and Johanna Thomas, former legal advisor to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, as "of counsel" and special counsel, respectively. All will be based in the firm's Washington office.

A quartet of House Commerce Committee Democrats led by ranking member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have called on the Republican majority to hold a hearing on Federal Communications Commission web site "failures."

The FCC said it was hit by a DDoS attack that affected comments, including in the net neutrality docket, while more recently there have been accusations that some mass filings were attributed to people who say they did not file them. “We have serious concerns that the FCC’s website failures deprive members of the public of opportunities to make their voices heard on net neutrality – an issue that affects everyone who uses the internet,” Rep Pallone said, joined by Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette (D-CO), Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY). “It is critical for the FCC to be able to facilitate public participation in open rulemaking proceedings.” They also want FCC CTO David Bray, who announced the DDoS attack, to testify at the hearing.