Court Rules No Money Damages Under Section 1983
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that telecommunications providers cannot bring a cause of action for money damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for a violation of Section 253 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. NextG Networks sued the city of New York, alleging that the city’s regulatory scheme as a whole violated Section 253 because the city “assumes that it has the unfettered discretion and power to determine who may or may not provide telecommunications services.” The court dismissed the company’s claim for money damages, but remanded the case to the district court to determine whether the city’s regulatory scheme “is in material respects prohibited or preempted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.”