Law Commons^™

How Much Is “Substantial Evidence” And How Big Is A “Significant Gap”?: The Telecommunications Attorney Full Employment Act, Susan Lorde Martin

William & Mary Business Law Review

The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia described the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as “a model of ambiguity or indeed even self-contradiction.” Legal wags have also described the Act as the Telecommunications Attorney Full Employment Act. Twenty years after the Act became law, it is still being interpreted by courts all over the country and costing taxpayers millions of dollars as local governments defend their telecom decisions in lawsuits. The Act’s basic notion was to allow local zoning authorities to maintain their control over their territories with a few new limitations that would encourage cell phone service companies to …