• by Wendy Davis , April 10, 2026

AT&T and Verizon on Friday pressed the Supreme Court to vacate more than $100 million in privacy fines imposed by the Federal Communications Commission.

The carriers contend that the FCC's decision to impose the fines -- technically "forfeiture orders" -- without first going to court violated their constitutional right to a trial by jury.

The FCC counters that the carriers could have had jury trials if they had simply refused to pay, in which case they could have defended themselves to a jury had the FCC pressed to collect the money. But AT&T and Verizon on Friday reiterated their argument that this procedure wouldn't have protected their rights.

"Even if forfeiture orders are just paper, they are still tigers," the carriers write, adding that the forfeiture orders included factual findings that the FCC "may use to the carriers’ detriment in subsequent proceedings, including license renewals and transfers without which carriers cannot operate."

"Carriers cannot risk allowing such orders to remain on the books without challenging them," the companies argue. "Carriers thus cannot ignore an FCC order and wait to be sued to have their day in court -- in a collection action that DOJ can wait up to five years to bring, and may never bring at all."

The telecoms' new filing comes in a dispute dating to 2020, when the FCC first proposed fining Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile for selling access to customers' geolocation data to aggregators that resold the information.

The agency proposed the fines after it came to light that a Missouri sheriff used geolocation data provided by Securus Technology to track other law enforcement officers, without court orders. Securus allegedly obtained the location data from the phone carriers.

In April 2024, the FCC voted along partisan lines to fine the companies ($47 million for Verizon, $57 million for AT&T and $92 million for T-Mobile). Current chair Brendan Carr was among the dissenters.

The telecoms paid the fines, then sued to vacate them. Verizon brought suit in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, while T-Mobile brought suit in the D.C. Circuit and AT&T sued in the 5th Circuit.

The 2nd Circuit and D.C. Circuit rejected the telecoms' arguments and upheld the fines, but the 5th Circuit agreed with AT&T and vacated the penalty.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court agreed to review the lower-court decisions. The court is expected to hear arguments on April 21.