A case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Consumers' Research, et al. v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, potentially has major implications for the FCC and FTC, and could permit a president to fire a commissioner at will, industry lawyers said. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups are asking SCOTUS in amicus filings to grant the writ of certiorari from Consumers' Research.

In spite of steps taken to prevent them, cyberattack threats continue to grow, AT&T said late Thursday. “As our networks evolve, they are becoming increasingly reliant on software and cloud technologies to handle growing demands for data consumption,” the carrier said in an SEC filing: “Cyberattacks against the Company and its suppliers and vendors have occurred in the past, will continue to occur in the future and are increasing in frequency, scope and potential harm over time.” During an earnings call Wednesday, company executives discussed AT&T's massive February outage; however, human error, not a cyberattack, was the culprit (see 2407240040).

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling Wednesday against the FCC's Universal Service Fund contribution factor for the first quarter of 2022 will likely have little to no immediate impact on the commission's USF-funded programs and providers contributing to the fund, trade groups and legal experts told us (see 2407240043). It's uncertain how the U.S. Supreme Court would interpret conflicting rulings of the 5th, 6th and 11th circuits. Consumers' Research asked SCOTUS in a supplemental brief filed Thursday (docket 23-456) to grant rehearing as a result of the circuit split.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper possess the best telecom policy credentials among the main contenders to be the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, broadband advocates and other policy observers told us. All the contenders hold broadly similar views to Vice President Kamala Harris on broadband and telecom policy matters, but could bring different perspectives to the ticket, experts said in interviews last week.

Omnispace’s Mindel De La Torre, former FCC international bureau chief, joins non-terrestrial network service provider Skylo Technologies as head-regulatory affairs ... Fox News Media names Katherine Meeks, previously Gibson, Dunn, as general counsel, effective Aug. 19; Bernard Gugar steps down as general counsel and executive vice president-corporate development ... Computer networking company Netgear appoints Pramod Badjate, ex-Arista Networks, as president-general manager-Netgear Business; Kirsten Daru, ex-Life360, as general counsel-chief privacy officer; Antonio Lopez Reus, ex-Amazon, as vice president-strategy and strategic partnerships; adds onXmaps’ Laura Orvidas to board; and promotes Fiona Spratt to senior vice president-people ... 5G mobile and fixed wireless solutions provider Inseego appoints Semtech’s David Markland as chief product officer and Dean Antonilli, as senior vice president-sales-service providers and names Sal Aroon, ex-Form, as vice president-head of operations.

The Media and Democracy Project submitted a petition with 25,532 signatures calling for an FCC hearing on whether Fox News' conduct during the 2020 election violated the agency's requirements for broadcast licensees. The item was filed on the one-year anniversary of MAD’s original filing challenging the license renewal of Fox-owned station WTXF-TV Philadelphia and includes signatories from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, MAD said. The FCC has not acted on MAD’s petition to deny. “These thousands of signees want satisfaction for the discord Fox has sown, alienating friend from friend and family member from family member over contrivances it pushed to preserve ratings and profits,” the filing said. “While FOX has peppered this proceeding with politicians and sports teams, we have dedicated our efforts to educating everyday Americans about the FCC’s role in determining whether FOX's leadership meets the character expected of a broadcast licensee,” MAD Executive Director Milo Vassalo said. A New York Times article Tuesday reported that Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch is involved in a court battle with several of his children over changes to the family trust and ownership of Fox. Former Fox and Disney executive Preston Padden, who supports MAD’s petition, said the FCC would have to act if control of Fox is transferred from Rupert Murdoch to one of his sons. Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman said that while the agency normally resolves license challenges before a transfer of control is complete, it could simply deny the MAD petition or refuse action on the transfer. Fox didn’t comment.

The Senate voted 86-1 Thursday to advance two kids’ safety bills, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., casting the lone no vote (see 2407240057).

CTIA promotes Umair Javed to senior vice president-general counsel, succeeding Tom Power, advising until end of year as senior counsel, and expands Vice President-Deputy General Counsel Kathryn Dall’Asta’s role as also chief-corporate affairs and compliance (see 2407240022) ... Fiber-optic company Luna appoints Kevin Ilcisin, co-founder-Juniper Strategies, as president-CEO, effective Aug. 1, succeeding interim CEO Richard Roedel, who also was interim executive chairman and is stepping down after 20 years with company ... Data security company Bedrock Security names co-founders Bruno Kurtic as president-CEO, Pranava Adduri as chief technology officer, and Ganesha Shanmuganathan as chief architect ... IT provider CompQsoft appoints Beth Barnes, ex-Alithya, as chief digital officer ... Emergency communication company AlertMedia appoints Jeff Dean, ex-Databricks, as vice president-global intelligence operations ... Harmonic, broadband and video delivery company, appoints Congruex’s Neel Dev to board ... Aviation broadband company Gogo appoints investor Monte Koch to board.

AT&T CEO John Stankey on Wednesday criticized the Biden administration’s work on making more spectrum available for wireless carriers. During the carrier's release of Q2 results, Stankey apologized for the February AT&T wireless outage, the topic of an FCC report this week (see 2407220034).

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 9-7 decision sided with Consumers' Research following an en banc rehearing of the group's challenge of the FCC's Universal Service Fund contribution methodology. Calling the contribution factor a "misbegotten tax," the court in a Wednesday ruling in docket 22-60008 held that as a "practical matter," the Universal Service Administrative Co. "sets the USF tax" that's "subject only to FCC's rubber stamp" (see 2406180055). In a statement, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency will "pursue all available avenues for review."