Communications – Cell phone towers

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U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Communications – Cell phone towers

Section 332(c)(7)(B)(iii) requires localities to provide reasons when they deny applications to build cell phone towers.

This conclusion follows from the Act’s provisions, which both preserve and specifically limit traditional state and local government authority. It would be considerably difficult for a reviewing court to determine whether a locality’s denial was “supported by substantial evidence contained in a written record,” §332(c)(7)(B)(iii), or whether a locality had “unreasonably discriminate[d] among providers of functionally equivalent services,” §332(c)(7)(B)(i)(I), or regulated siting “on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions,” §332(c)(7)(B)(iv), if localities were not obligated to state their reasons for denial. And nothing in the Act suggests that Congress meant to use the phrase “substantial evidence” as anything but an administrative law “term of art” that describes how “an administrative record is to be judged by a reviewing court.” United States v. Carlo Bianchi & Co., 373 U. S. 709.

731 F. 3d 1213, reversed and remanded.

13-975 T-Mobile South, LLC, v. City of Roswell

Sotomayor, J.; Alito, J., concurring; Roberts, C.J., dissenting; Thomas, J., dissenting.

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