(Washington, D.C.)—Yesterday, the Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting respondents in the consolidated cases FCC v. AT&T, Inc. and Verizon Communications, Inc. v. FCC. The cases ask the Court to resolve a split between the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Second Circuits and determine whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can continue to fine companies millions of dollars through internal agency “trials” rather than in a real courtroom.
The case centers on the Seventh Amendment, which guarantees the right to a jury trial in civil cases. Under Section 222 of the Telecommunications Act, the FCC investigates how companies handle customer data. If the agency decides a company wasn’t “reasonable” in their handling—a standard traditionally decided by juries in negligence cases—it can issue tens of millions of dollars in fines. Instead of proving its case in a real court, the FCC conducts “in-house” adjudications where agency bureaucrats make the final call. In doing so, the government is using a “loophole” to delay justice and damage reputations. Because a company can eventually get a jury trial if the government sues them to collect an unpaid fine, the FCC argues it respects the Constitution, but there is a catch. The government can wait up to five years to file a lawsuit, while the agency publicly brands the company a lawbreaker and treats them as a “repeat offender” in all future dealings.
At the Liberty Justice Center, we believe the right to a jury is too sacred to be treated as a “maybe” that only happens years after the government has already tarnished your name and declared you guilty.
“The right to a jury trial is the oldest right in our legal tradition—and should not be tossed out for the convenience of administrative agencies,” said Reilly Stephens, Director of Amicus Practice at the Liberty Justice Center. “As the noblemen at Runnymede understood, juries provide a vital check on the powers of the sovereign. We hope the Supreme Court recognizes as much, and puts an end to these abuses.”
The brief highlights that the FCC’s current system forces companies to choose between paying an unconstitutional fine or waiting years for the government to sue them in a real court. This “pay-to-play” version of the Seventh Amendment is a violation of due process and undermines the protections intended by the Founders.
The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief in FCC v. AT&T, Inc. was filed February 25, 2026 and can be found here.