U.S. Supreme Court Says Lower Courts Can Review FCC Rules Regarding TCPA

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that District Courts need not defer to the FCC’s interpretation of the TCPA. Specifically, in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates, Inc. v. McKesson Corp., the plaintiff brought a lawsuit against the defendant for defendant’s transmission of unsolicited faxes in violation of the TCPA. The putative class contained fax recipients who received the faxes via a traditional fax machine, as well as recipients who received the fax via an online fax service. The District Court granted class certification and the lawsuit continued.

While the suit was pending, an unrelated third party petitioned the FCC for a ruling as to whether the TCPA applies to online fax services. The FCC ultimately issued an order—the Amerifactors Order—finding that the telephone facsimile machines covered by the TCPA do not include online fax services. When presented with FCC’s ruling, the District Court in McLaughlin found it to be binding, following 9th Circuit precedent establishing that courts lack the authority to question the validity of FCC orders; instead, under the Hobbs Act, FCC orders are subject to pre-enforcement review exclusively in the court of appeals. The District Court granted summary judgment to the defendant with respect to the claims based on receipt of online faxes, and decertified the class. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.

After granting certiorari, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Hobbs Act does not preclude district courts from independently assessing the FCC’s interpretation of the TCPA under ordinary principles of statutory interpretation, giving appropriate respect to the agency’s interpretation. In other words, district courts can disagree with the FCC’s interpretation, even if that interpretation was upheld on a pre-enforcement appeal (subject to principles of estoppel, preclusion, and stare decisis).

Attorneys on both sides of the bar consider the Court’s ruling to be a watershed moment, enabling litigants to bring challenges to a litany of TCPA rulings previously thought to be unreviewable.

The case is McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates, Inc. v. McKesson Corp., 2025 U.S. LEXIS 2385 (June 20, 2025).