Brendan Carr’s 1st Amendment Case Was Against the City of San Francisco, CA, for the CTIA, Wireless Association.

The First Amendment, Constitution of United States of America 1789 (rev. 1992)

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

Filed as FCC Comments: (Different than the list above) Refreshing the Record: 27 Years of FCC Filings and Complaints in the Section 706 Advanced Network and Related Proceedings by New Networks Institute, Teletruth and the IRREGULATORS.

This is Divided into 2 Parts:

Part 1: Who says Chairman Carr doesn’t care about first amendment issues?

While there has been an outcry about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr going after those who have a right to speak their mind, even late night talk show hosts, Brendan Carr is a telecom lawyer who worked for the industry and their associations, such as CTIA, where Carr represented the wireless association in a first amendment case against the City of San Francisco over wireless issues. Governor Newsom was then the Mayor of San Francisco in 2004 to the beginning of 2011.

But while the late-night hosts speak their mind, in his testimony to Congress for his appointment to become an FCC Commissioner, or the no-need for a hearing ,when he became chairman, he never fully disclosed that his clients were the phone and wireless association and their 2 largest members are AT&T and Verizon.

More troubling is the fact that thee was no serious vetting of Carr when he became Chairman of the FCC; no hearings or congressional grilling; it was just a done deal.

We also will discuss how Brendan Carr has removed the IRREGULATORS and the public’s right to due process. In March 2025, Carr released a series of 4 inter-related actions with no comments permitted and no full commission review. We have filed applications for review, but these are part of his ‘Delete, Delete, Delete, plan to just erase regulations, obligations on the companies as they are so ‘burdensome’. We believe this is an attack on our rights — a first amendment violation to participate and hear what the other commenters believe.

We note that we have previously participated in these proceedings for almost a decade with over 18 filings, in these and other related ongoing regulatory areas, with over 5,700 pages of filings.

These FCC proceedings were full of “Missing Material Facts” and little but ”Made-up Reports” based on fake industry data . Moreover, as we discuss, the data and analysis being used in these proceedings to change public policies are, missing basic material facts are just made-up fiction.

Our Fiber Optic Future Has Been Lobotomized. Brendan Carr parroted the industry stats that the 5G networks would be 100 times faster than 4G and good for rural areas. After getting that wrong Carr is now planning to abolish the US goal of 1Gbps speed to a crawl of 35 Mbps to accommodate wireless and satellite inferior service so they can get government subsidies — that is a 97% drop in America’s high-speed bandwidth future.

Part II: Let Us Expose Chairman Carr’s Hidden Agenda. Over the last 9 months Brendan Carr has been hard at work with a monthly ‘open meeting. where about 5 separate proceedings are announced, more that any organization without serious organization could handle — but these are also wonk topics, such as Business Data Services also called Special Access, or Advanced Network report to Congress, Section 706. In fact, we have found that over 20 separate proceedings were all designed to work together with goal being:

The slowing of the speed to accommodate wireless, is one proceeding, another is the moving of public assets, like Business Data Services, to use it for wireless, which also means taking customer funded utility property, where customers paid extra for a fiber to the home upgrade, and move networks and construction for wireless.

There are also 4 proceedings that had no comment period regarding the removal of the copper wires — but none of these proceedings were to replace them with fiber; they were designed to also let them be used for wireless. This was even more egregious because it also is removing the basic notification process is yet another proceeding.

In yet another related proceeding, Carr claimed that prices are going down so we might as well get rid of the remaining cable rate regulation but he doesn’t mention the additional junk fees he refuses to address that make prices go up.

And he wants to strip-mine “Truth-in-billing” so that improper charges are a thing of the past, while, at the same time the FCC is removing basic rights and consumer protections. An Example, Carr claims that there are zero cramming complaints at the FCC in 2025. In contrast, our auditing of customer bills, which led to the filing of a class action lawsuit that found over100,000 small businesses were victims of cramming. In many cases, these charges were hidden on the bills for over 15 years. It is not credible for the FCC to say it received zero complaints.

In fact, there has been a major rewriting of history about broadband. In fact, there are still state telecommunications public utilities that are now being dismantled. Even though customers have had rate increases over the last 2 decades, that keep being charged but are not going to properly upgrade and deliver fiber to the home.

And the FCC is using the industry supplied information that is used for shutting off the copper network wires with over 50 million AT&T customers that could be harmed.

But then there are the insider discussions. The IRREGULATORS is a consortium of senior telecom analysts, lawyers and auditors, averaging 40 years each, and when we see that the Chairman of the FCC has his own biased agenda, or should we say the corporations calling the shots to maximize profits over the critical infrastructure that should have been built, or the price increases — because they can — and we are blocked or ignored from protecting the public interest.

We will go into the details of these 20+ proceedings to supply the basic information the FCC doesn’t want you to think about.

Part I: Let’s Start: Brendan Carr worked for the Telecom Industry as a lawyer.

We followed Chairman Carr’s work for decades and when he was up for Commissioner we objected because his clients were the major phone companies including Verizon and AT&T as well as their trade associations, including the CTIA and the USTelecom. There was nothing disclosed in his background that showed any public interest bias just a corporate bias.

But, as we saw, Brendan Carr failed to provide basic facts in his testimony to Congress. — that his clients were the phone and wireless companies. We note that this revolving door of the senior regulators and lawyers ended up working for those they were supposed to be regulating in the Public Interest.

Bill Kennard, a Democratic FCC Chair of the FCC, is now the Chairman of the AT&T Board of Advisors, while Michael Powell, a Republican Chairman, served as the President & CEO of the NCTA, the cable trade association for fifteen years. He was recently replaced by Cory Gardner, a former CO US Senator and Representative.

Ajit Pai, Republican, was a former Verizon Attorney first. And is now at the CTIA, wireless trade association.

Let us repeat: Carr never revealed that he was a telecom attorney working for AT&T, Verizon, and their trade associations, the USTelecom, the wireline trade association,

and the CTIA, the wireless trade association.

Some additional details about Brendan Carr, the CTIA and the First Amendment.

In 2014, according to the Benton Foundation, when Carr became a legal advisor for then-Commissioner Ajit Pai in 2014, Commissioner Pai said:

“Brendan Carr …litigated First Amendment and other telecom cases while in private practice. He combines this experience with a keen instinct for telecom policy, which I will rely on as the Commission tackles many important issues.”

First Amendment Issues were for the Wireless Industry, Not San Francisco.

Unfortunately, this victory is for the wireless industry association, the CTIA, and the First Amendment was used against the city of San Francisco. And Carr was one of the lawyers for CTIA.

“Wiley Rein Secures First Amendment Victory for the Wireless Industry

October 28, 2011

“In a First Amendment victory for the Wireless Industry, a federal judge in San Francisco… Wiley Rein, which has represented CTIA-The Wireless Association® (CTIA) in this matter since 2010, had argued on the industry’s behalf…Brendan Carr are among the counsel for CTIA in this matter.”

There is a twisted irony here.

One interesting twist — First, as chairman, Ajit Pai called Trump on claiming that the agency should not go after media company.

Chairman Ajit Pai was appointed by Donald Trump in his first term and Pai contradicted Trumps position on going after media companies, especially removing their licenses.

According to Politico,

“FCC Chairman Ajit Pai defended the First Amendment and said his agency can’t revoke the license of a broadcaster based on its content, six days after President Donald Trump threatened to pull the licenses of TV networks he dislikes.

“I believe in the First Amendment,” Pai said at a telecom law event in Washington, without mentioning Trump by name. “The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment, and under the law the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.”

At this time Brendan Carr was appointed General Counsel. And would become Commissioner.

Another twist: in 2025, Ajit Pai is now the head of the CTIA, the wireless association.

Wireless Favoritism, Failure to use accurate statistics and analysis and a failure to identify that the Carr’s clients in his testimony to Congress to become Commissioner,

In fact, it is a little-known fact that there was no hearing or any requirements to become

Chairman of the FCC.

Brendan Carr Got this wrong: “5G is not 100 times faster than 4G.” Speech, Interrelation Institute of Communications, December 10, 2019

1. “As everyone here knows, 5G is a disruptive new service that promises ..100 times current speeds, that can serve 1,000 times more devices. 5G isn’t just an upgraded version of 4G.”
2. “5G will offer mobile data speeds we have never seen before — perhaps 100 times faster than 4G service. “

• Avg. speed of 4G LTE in 2019 was 30 Mbps: This would be 3Gbps faster
• 2025: Brendan Carr wants to abolish the goal of 1Gbps slow down the speeds to be 35Mbps down, 6 up.
• This is 97% slower than the predicted speed America would have from 5G by 2025.

In fact, it was an easy call to say 5G would not live up to the hype as it requires a line of a line of sight from the antenna and has problems with distance and requires a fiber optic wire.

We’ve been critical about the FCC’s information because anyone who covered wireless seriously would know that the hype far exceeds the actual speed.

• Even 2nd Graders Would Laugh & Complain if They Heard FCC Brendan Carr’s 5G Wireless Fairy Tales.
• Verizon Wireless’s 5G Deployment is a 1 Gig Fairy Tale.
• Verizon “will have speeds of up 1 Gbps and is being tested starting in 2016.
• Fierce Wireless, December 8, 2015, reports that Verizon’s 5G wireless will be deployed in 2016.

Would Brendan Carr have made it through the nomination process for Commissioner, much less Chairman had he disclosed his clients or the data and analysis we provided, and he ignored?

And is his current plans to stealthy put forward a plan that links 21 proceedings to help push through crap wireless, and stymie the fiber optic wired deployments?

And were the IRREGULATORS et al first amendment rights to comment in multiple proceedings a violation of our due process and a form of discrimination that blocks out first amendment rights?

These are some of the stories we implied about Brendan Carr’s ties to the industry or more importantly his clients at Wiley were virtually all of the phone, wireless, etc companies that were his clients.

But all of this pales to the current collection of issues

The IRREGULATORS Right to Due Process and our First amendment rights have been harmed

IRREGULATORS Request Full Review of the FCC Deregulation Order — and Debate Us.

On March 20th, 2025, the FCC released 4 orders that were a ‘done deal’ without any comment period or any commission review.

We filed with the FCC to halt these current Orders and require the FCC to redo these proceedings, with a comment period and full Commission review.

We also challenge the FCC and USTelecom to an open, public debate.

USTelecom, the Broadband Association, is the original wireline association for AT&T and Verizon, and they ‘served us with a notice’, and filed in opposition in an attempt to shut down our call to halt this proceeding and start again, as well as debate the IRREGULATORS.

And or be clear, the IRREGULATORS have filed in these proceedings since 2017

To date, we filed the original ‘Request for Review’, USTelecom replied and as of May 15th, we filed a short rebuttal (5 double-spaced pages, within 10 days of the USTelecom filing),

• Read our Short Rebuttal , May 15, 2025
• Read the USTelecom Opposition to our Request for a Full Review
• Read the IRREGULATORS FCC Application for Review
• FCC Should Halt the End-Run Order from the Wireline Bureau — and Start Investigations.
• FCC Cutting Red Tape to Unleash New Infrastructure Investments
• (Includes 4 Orders and Chairman Carr Press Release, March 20, 2025)
• Why is this extremely important? Because Chairman Carr has also announced Delete, Delete, Delete for massive deregulation. Anyone reading this will understand that this Deregulation plan is a model of what will come — a removal of laws and regulations that first benefits the companies, not the public.
• Read Delete, Delete, Delete? FCC Massive Deregulation Created a Massive Ongoing Accounting Scandal: The Burdens are on US.
• 4 Separate Proceedings Hidden in One Chairman Carr Press Release.