Opinion ID: 781586
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 25 As Appellees acknowledge, after the Supreme Court's recent decision in Verizon Maryland, Inc. v. Public Service Commission, 535 U.S. 635, 122 S.Ct. 1753, 152 L.Ed.2d 871 (2002), their jurisdictional arguments must fail. See also ACS of Fairbanks v. GCI Communication Corp., 321 F.3d 1215, 2003 WL 1062026 (9th Cir.2003). In Verizon Maryland, the Supreme Court held that 28 U.S.C. § 1331 provides a basis for jurisdiction over an ILEC's claim that a state regulatory commission's order requiring reciprocal compensation for ISP-bound calls is preempted by federal law. Verizon Md., Inc. 122 S.Ct. at 1758. Although the Court declined to decide whether § 252(e)(6) 9 authorizes such review, it agree[d] ... that even if § 252(e)(6) does not confer jurisdiction, it at least does not divest the district courts of their authority under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 to review the [State] Commission's order for compliance with federal law. Id. 26 Next, the Court held that the Eleventh Amendment did not bar Verizon Maryland's claim against the state regulatory commission, because under Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908), Verizon Maryland could proceed against the commissioners of the state regulatory commission in their official capacities. Id. at 1760. The Court explained that Verizon's prayer for injunctive relief — that state officials be restrained from enforcing an order in contravention of controlling federal law — clearly satisfies the requirements of an Ex Parte Young suit. Id. It noted that although Verizon's claim for declaratory relief seeks a declaration of the past, as well as the future, ineffectiveness of the [State] Commission's action ... no past liability of the State, or any of its commissioners, is at issue. Id. Even if the State Commission's order was not inconsistent with federal law, the inquiry into whether suit lies under Ex parte Young does not include an analysis of the merits of the claim. Id. at 1761. 27 Thus, Verizon Maryland authorizes our exercise of subject matter jurisdiction under § 1331 over both the challenges to the CPUC's generic orders, which target existing interconnection agreements, and the Pac-West Order, which deals with arbitration of a new agreement. Before Verizon Maryland, there was little disagreement that state commission rulings enforcing arbitrated agreements or approving new interconnection agreements were subject to federal court review under § 252(e)(6). See, e.g., Southwestern Bell Tel. Co. v. Brooks Fiber Communications ( Brooks Fiber ), 235 F.3d 493, 497 (10th Cir.2000). It was unsettled, however, whether federal courts could review a state commission's interpretation or enforcement of an [existing] interconnection agreement, Verizon Md., 122 S.Ct. at 1758-59, because only arbitration and approval are explicitly mentioned in § 252. 28 Verizon Maryland settled this question, concluding that nothing in either § 252(e)(6) or in the rest of the Act limited federal jurisdiction that would otherwise exist under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 over rulings that were allegedly violative of federal law. Id. at 1758-59. Indeed, rather than reading § 252(e)(6) as any sort of jurisdictional limitation, the Court stated that § 252(e)(6) reads like the conferral of a private right of action. Id. at 1759. 29 This reasoning applies with equal force both to interpretation and enforcement of existing interconnection agreements and to arbitration and approval of new agreements. Indeed, in light of its rulings, the Court found it unnecessary to consider whether 47 U.S.C. § 252(e)(6) provided an independent jurisdictional basis for the enforcement or interpretation of existing agreements. Verizon Md., 122 S.Ct. at 1758; see also id. at 1759 (Section 252 does not establish a distinctive mechanism for the commission actions that it covers (the mechanism is the same as § 1331: district court review), and it does not distinctively limit the substantive relief available.). 30 Both sides of this dispute also raise jurisdictional arguments under the Hobbs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2342, in an attempt to limit each other's arguments on review. We reject these jurisdictional arguments as well. The Hobbs Act gives the courts of appeals exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity of all FCC final orders. 28 U.S.C. § 2342(1); see also U.S. W. Communications v. MFS Intelenet, Inc., 193 F.3d 1112, 1123 (9th Cir.1999). The district court must dismiss a complaint if it directly attacks an FCC order or if it raises only issues that were conclusively decided by the FCC order. Here, neither side seeks to re-adjudicate issues that already have been conclusively determined by the FCC. At most, they merely ask the court to interpret the FCC's rulings, to the extent that they are final and binding, and to determine whether the CPUC's actions here were consistent with them and with the other authoritative sources of federal law.