Global Crossing Telecommunications, Inc. v. Metrophones Telecommunications, Inc. (550 U.S. 45)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 17, 2007 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 550 U.S. 45 · 127 S. Ct. 1513
- Decided
- April 17, 2007
- Term
- October Term 2006
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. The Federal Communications Commission (Commission or FCC) has established rules that require long-distance (and certain other) communications carriers to compensate a payphone operator when a caller uses a payphone to obtain free access to the carrier’s lines (by dialing, e. g., a 1-800 number or other access code). The Commission has added that a carrier’s refusal to pay the compensation is a “practice . . . that is unjust or unreasonable” within the terms of the Communications Act of 1934, § 201(b), 48 Stat. 1070, 47 U. S. C. § 201(b). Communications Act language links § 201(b) to § 207, which authorizes any person “damaged” by a violation of § 201(b) to bring a lawsuit to recover damages in federal court. And we must here decide whether this linked section, §207, authorizes a payphone operator to bring a federal-court lawsuit against a recalcitrant carrier that refuses to pay the compensation that the Commission’s order says it owes. In our view, the FCC’s application of § 201(b) to the carrier’s refusal to pay compensation is a reasonable interpretation of the statute; hence it is lawful. See Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 843-844, and n. 11 (1984). And, given the linkage with §207, we also conclude that §207 authorizes this federal-court lawsuit. I A Because regulatory…
Excerpt of a 38,915-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.