Public Knowledge Defends FCC Independence in First Circuit Amicus Brief

Public Knowledge, along with the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, the Center for Digital Democracy, and Free Press, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reject attacks on the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission in recent Incarcerated Persons Communication Services litigation. This brief responds to arguments from a coalition of state attorneys general that the FCC’s structure, as a bipartisan independent agency with commissioners who cannot be removed for political reasons, violates the president’s constitutional powers. The brief demonstrates that this theory is fundamentally flawed, misreads nearly a century of established Supreme Court precedent, and threatens the independence of regulatory agencies that protect the public interest.