Note: On March 4, 2022, the Supreme Court refused to hear our case. Below are the briefs that were filed, and a review of what we were requesting.
Briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court
Petition for Writ of Certiorari, October 25, 2021: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-629/196710/20211025140205639_Santa%20Fe%20Alliance%20Petition.pdf
Reply to City of Santa Fe and United States of America, February 10, 2022:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-629/213870/20220210153648714_21-629.%20Santa%20Fe.%20Reply.pdf
Amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief, filed on behalf of 289 organizations and 34 individuals from 34 states and 29 countries:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-629/201178/20211123153745013_41714%20pdf%20Gregory%20br.pdf
Summary of our case
The Santa Fe Alliance for Public Health and Safety filed a petition On October 25, 2021 asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on a threat to the existence of this country, and this world.
In 1996, Congress passed a law that permitted the pollution of every square inch of this country with microwave radiation. The polluters – telecommunications companies — were exempted from all liability for injury, death and property damage. Cities and states were forbidden to protect their citizens. State courts were prohibited from hearing lawsuits. The millions of people injured, killed, and deprived of their income and property by cell towers and antennas have had no remedy for their injuries, deaths and losses.
The law that accomplished this destruction of our country is the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 704 of that law states:
“No State or local government or instrumentality thereof may regulate the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with the Commission’s regulations concerning such emissions.”
The “Commission” is the Federal Communications Commission, which has no authority over health or environment, and does not even have the power to enforce its own regulations concerning microwave (also called radio frequency) radiation. The result of Section 704 is that no one has been protecting our country, our citizens, and our environment from this radiation for the past 25 years — not the FCC, not the states, not the cities, and not the courts.
The advent of 5G technology has brought this situation to a crisis. Like many other cities, Santa Fe, New Mexico passed an ordinance exempting antennas in the public rights-of-way from all land use requirements, and in 2018, franchises were awarded to five telecommunications companies to place cell towers and antennas anywhere they please in the streets and on the sidewalks of Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Alliance for Public Health and Safety immediately filed a lawsuit in federal district court. That lawsuit is now before the highest court of the land.
We asked the Supreme Court to rule on two related questions:
1. Does Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 violate the right of access to courts guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution?
2. Does “environmental effects” mean “health effects” in Section 704?