City of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, et al. v. Mark J. Abrams (544 U.S. 113)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 22, 2005 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 544 U.S. 113 · 125 S. Ct. 1453
- Decided
- March 22, 2005
- Term
- October Term 2004
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. We decide in this case whether an individual may enforce the limitations on local zoning authority set forth in § 332(c)(7) of the Communications Act of 1934, 47. U. S. C. § 332(c)(7), through an action under Rev. Stat. §1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983. I Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TCA), 110 Stat. 56, to promote competition and higher quality in American telecommunications services and to “encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunications technologies.” Ibid. One of the means by which it sought to accomplish these goals was reduction of the impediments imposed by local governments upon the installation of facilities for wireless communications, such as antenna towers. To this end, the TCA amended the Communications Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 1064, to include § 332(c)(7), which imposes specific limitations on the traditional authority of state and local governments to regulate the location, construction, and modification of such facilities, 110 Stat. 151, codified at 47 U. S. C. § 332(c)(7). Under this provision, local governments may not * “unreasonably discriminate among providers of functionally equivalent services,” § 332(c)(7)(B)(i)(I), take actions that “prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services,” § 332(c)(7)(B)(i)(II), or limit the placement of wireless…
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