This Week At The Ninth: Sham Phone Operations And E-Cigarettes

This week, the Court addresses the FCC's adjudicatory authority and considers the scope of specific personal jurisdiction in product-liability suits.

WIDE VOICE, LLC v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

The Court holds that the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") did not exceed its authority in finding that a telephone company acted unlawfully by restructuring its business operations to continue imposing charges that were otherwise prohibited by the agency's rules.

The panel: Judges Paez, Bade, and Collins (D. Ariz.), with Judge Paez writing the opinion.

Key highlight: "It is well established that the FCC has broad discretion to administer the Communications Act through rulemaking and adjudication. While the FCC, unlike a court, can make new law protectively through the exercise of its rule-making powers, adjudication is just as necessary as not every principle can or should be cast immediately into the mold of a general rule. Adjudication empowers