Cite as: 535 U. S. 467 (2002)
Syllabus
prompted the failure last time to appeal on these rules, which were reexamined on remand at the Eighth Circuit's behest, not the Govern-ment's nor the competing carriers'. Any issue pressed or passed upon by a federal court is subject to this Court's broad discretion on certiorari, and there are good reasons to look at Rules 315(c)-(f). The Eighth Circuit passed on a significant issue that has been placed in a state of flux by a split among federal cases. Pp. 528-531.
(B) The Eighth Circuit read 47 U. S. C. § 251(c)(3)'s requirement that "[a]n incumbent . . . provide . . . network elements in a manner that allows requesting carriers to combine such elements" as unambiguously excusing incumbents from any obligation to combine provided elements. But the language is not that plain. If Congress had treated incumbents and entrants as equals, it probably would be plain enough that the incumbents' obligations stopped at furnishing an element that could be combined. The Act, however, proceeds on the understanding that incumbent monopolists and contending competitors are unequal. Cf. § 251(c). And because, within the actual statutory confines, it is not self-evident that in obligating incumbents to furnish, Congress silently negated a duty to combine, the Court reads § 251(c)(3)'s language as leaving open who should do the work of combination. Under Chevron, that leaves the additional combination rules intact unless the incumbents can show them to be unreasonable. The Court finds, however, that those rules reflect a reasonable reading of the statute. They are meant to remove practical barriers to competitive entry into local-exchange markets while avoiding serious interference with incumbent network operations. The rules say an incumbent shall, for payment, "perform the functions necessary," Rules 315(c) and (d), to combine elements in order to put a competing carrier on an equal footing with the incumbent when the requesting carrier is unable to combine, First Report and Order ¶ 294, when it would not place the incumbent at a disadvantage in operating its own network, and when it would not place other competing carriers at a competitive disadvantage, Rule 315(c)(2). This duty is consistent with the Act's goals of competition and non-discrimination, and imposing it is a sensible way to reach the result the Act requires. Pp. 531-538.
219 F. 3d 744, affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
Souter, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Stevens, Kennedy, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined, in which Scalia and Thomas, JJ., joined as to Part III, and in which Thomas, J., also joined as to Part IV. Breyer, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which Scalia, J., joined as to Part VI, post,
473
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007