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Opinion of the Court
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. These cases present the question whether federal district courts have jurisdiction over a telecommunication carrier's claim that the order of a state utility commission requiring reciprocal compensation for telephone calls to Internet Service Providers violates federal law.
I
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act or Act), Pub. L. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56, created a new telecommunications regime designed to foster competition in local telephone markets. Toward that end, the Act imposed various obligations on incumbent local-exchange carriers (LECs), including a duty to share their networks with competitors. See 47 U. S. C. § 251(c) (1994 ed., Supp. V). When a new entrant seeks access to a market, the incumbent LEC must "provide . . . interconnection with" the incumbent's existing network, § 251(c)(2), and the carriers must then establish "reciprocal compensation arrangements" for transporting and terminating the calls placed by each others' customers, § 251(b)(5). As we have previously described, see AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Bd., 525 U. S. 366, 371-373 (1999), an incumbent LEC "may negotiate and enter into a binding agreement" with the new entrant "to fulfill the duties" imposed by §§ 251(b) and (c), but "without regard to the standards set forth" in those provisions. §§ 252(a)(1),
ton; and for the Virginia State Corporation Commission by William H. Chambliss.
[Reporter's Note: On January 22, 2002, 534 U. S. 1110, the Court granted the motion of TCG Maryland, Inc., to treat the brief for AT&T Communications of Illinois, Inc., et al., in Mathis v. WorldCom Technologies, Inc., post, p. 682, as the brief for respondent TCG Maryland, Inc., in these cases.
On January 7, 2002, 534 U. S. 1076, and February 19, 2002, 534 U. S. 1124, the Court granted the motions of amici curiae filers in Mathis v. WorldCom Technologies, Inc., supra, to have their amici curiae briefs considered as briefs amici curiae in these cases.]
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