Mobile industry urges judges to overturn Berkeley’s radiation warning

Two titans of the legal world faced off Sept 13 before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case that pits the cell phone industry against the city of Berkeley (CA). If the court ends up reversing a lower court’s earlier decision and ruling in favor of CTIA - The Wireless Association, it would overturn a new Berkeley city law that aims to alert cell phone users about possible radiation risks by forcing retailers to post signs in their stores. That law went into effect earlier in 2016 after the cell phone trade group sued to halt it.

Earlier in 2016, a federal judge ruled in favor of the defendants in CTIA v. City of Berkeley, allowing a municipal ordinance to stand, with one small revision. The Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA), meanwhile, has argued that this violates the industry’s First Amendment rights, as it compels speech. “This is confusing,” Ted Olson, a former solicitor general under the George W. Bush administration, argued before the 9th Circuit on behalf of CTIA. “What the [Federal Communications Commission] says, your honors, with respect to its findings of cell phones used in the US is that they are safe. What Berkeley's message says is: ‘Watch out!’” Olson, who previously made similar arguments before the US District Court level, repeated his claim that this government-required notice was a “burden on speech.” “There’s a reason why Berkeley put the word ‘safety’ in there, it’s to send an alarm,” he said.