Sixth Circuit to Rehear Case on FCC Data Breach Rules Case
Telecom industry groups and Republican lawmakers said the court’s previous decision made it harder for Congress to nullify disfavored rules
WASHINGTON, July 31, 20256 – A full panel of federal judges will rehear a case that upheld expanded telecom data breach rules.
The Federal Communications Commission, now under Republican control, has indicated it’s likely to reverse the rules anyway. But industry groups and GOP lawmakers want the case’s precedent gone too.
They told judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that the reasoning behind the 2025 decision would have made it more difficult for Congress to permanently nullify agency rules it disagreed with.
Judges apparently agreed it was worth revisiting the issue.
The court clerk wrote Friday that “a majority of the Judges of this Court in regular active service has voted for rehearing en banc of this case,” meaning a full panel of 13 judges would rehear the case, rather than the usual three.
Oral arguments are set for Oct. 21, 2026. Briefs are due Aug. 31, and replies are due Oct. 12.
The case centers on rules the FCC adopted during the Biden administration that expanded the kinds of data breaches telecoms had to report, and expanded the kinds of customer data they would have to protect.
Industry groups sued, arguing the rules were too similar to a provision that Congress struck down using the Congressional Review Act in 2017.
The CRA, passed in 1996, allows Congress to nullify agency rules with majority votes in both chambers and prevents those rules from being reissued in the future. The president may veto CRA resolutions.
In 2025, a Sixth Circuit panel upheld the FCC rules, saying the agency could bring back a smaller part of a nullified package. The Friday order vacated that decision.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the time, dissented from the rules. He cited the same concerns as the telecom industry. Under his leadership, the agency has been downplaying those concerns and urging against a rehearing.
Earlier this month FCC and Justice Department attorneys argued the scenario Republican lawmakers and industry groups feared, agencies repeatedly bringing back nullified rules piece by piece, was unlikely.
The government said the 2023 rules were actually not the same as the nixed provision, and thus the decision didn’t mean that agencies were able to re-adopt nullified rules.
The court held off on deciding whether to rehear the case for eight months. The FCC told judges it was reviewing the rules, implying it might reverse them, but the court eventually unpaused after the review dragged on.
