U.S. Supreme Court Rules on T-Mobile Case

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on T-Mobile South, LLC v. City of Roswell, Georgia, where T-Mobile alleged the city of Roswell didn’t meet the Communications Act “in writing” requirement when the City Council rejected the company’s application to construct a cell tower. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed an Eleventh Circuit decision that upheld the city’s denial of T-Mobile’s zoning permit application in a 6-3 vote. Justice Sonia Maria Sotomayor delivered the opinion of the Court, saying, “The question presented is whether, and in what form, localities must provide reasons when they deny telecommunication companies’ applications to construct cell phone towers. We hold that localities must provide or make available their reasons, but that those reasons need not appear in the written denial letter or notice provided by the locality. Instead, the locality’s reasons may appear in some other written record so long as the reasons are sufficiently clear and are provided or made accessible to the applicant essentially contemporaneously with the written denial letter or notice.” View the entire ruling here.