[Commentary] Sometimes Commissioners aren’t content to just vote on the orders the Federal Communications Commission issues. Instead, they feel the need to issue their own “separate statements”, explaining, justifying, hedging, etc., etc. their votes. We read a lot of those statements – it’s an occupational hazard.
As far as we can tell, such statements usually don’t add much to the Greater Good. After all, the FCC’s decision is the FCC’s decision, and the individual musings of one or another Commissioner may be marginally interesting, but they don’t affect the decision. They often seem intended primarily to bestow kudos on Commission staff members, members of Congress, various other notables, while articulating observations that, apparently, couldn’t garner a majority of the Commission (otherwise, presumably, they would have been included in the actual order, obviating the need for a separate statement). Which brings us to a separate statement of a different stripe. The Commission voted to close up a quasi-loophole in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a loophole that some members of the bar (other lawyers might refer to them as “brethren” but, frankly, we’d rather not) have apparently used to justify class action suits of dubious validity. And Commissioner Ajit Pai issued a separate statement in connection with the decision. We salute Commissioner Pai’s statement and commend it to our readers’ attention. It is a model of concision and directness. There is elegance (the order “ends the legal lacuna and the courtroom arbitrage it has inspired”), reference to the actual record before the FCC, and avoidance of the obvious cliché. And then there’s the citation which references a quote from The Big Lebowski. And it’s a righteous, on-the-money quote. Separate Commissioners’ statements don’t often rely on such sources.
