The U.S. Supreme Court did not deny a hearing to Sprint PCS, which is suing the County of San Diego to overturn its wireless ordinance restricting wireless antennae installations in residential neighborhoods.
At its March 20, 2009 private conference, the Supreme Court denied most petitions outright, but it postponed a definite decision on three cases, referring them instead to the U.S. Solicitor General for comments. Two of the three cases involved telecommunications companies, including the Sprint PCS v. County of San Diego Case (Docket #08-759). The court order reads:
The Solicitor General is invited to file briefs in these cases expressing the views of the United States.
Glendale Organized Against Cell Towers and other community groups throughout the U.S. have cited a Ninth Circuit Court decision allowing San Diego to enforce its ordinance. Sprint seeks to have the U.S. high court overturn this decision.
San Diego County has fought Sprint PCS on this case in the court system since 2003.
The SCOTUSblog reports:
The U.S. Solicitor General was asked to submit reactions to Level 3 Communications v. St. Louis (08-626) and Sprint Telephony v. San Diego County (08-759), the cases on preemption of local regulation of wireless and fiber optic services. In those cases, two federal Circuit Courts rejected the companies’ argument that the local controls were preempted by federal law — the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The issue in both cases is the scope of a preemption clause in the 1996 Act.