Northern Valley Communications, LLC v. Federal Communications Commission

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge, KAVANAUGH.

KAVANAUGH, Circuit Judge:

When you make a long-distance telephone call, the call travels from your local exchange carrier, known as a LEC, to a long-distance carrier. The long-distance carrier routes the call to the call recipient’s LEC. That LEC then completes the call to the recipient.

LECs are classified as either competitive (CLECs) or incumbent (ILECs). Subject to FCC approval, CLECs may impose tariffs on long-distance carriers for access to CLECs’ customers. In recent years, the FCC has grown concerned that some CLECs have engaged in…