City of Arlington, Texas v. Federal Communications Commission

The Telecommunications Act limited local governments' authority over wireless tower placement through five enumerated restrictions, including a requirement that local governments act on applications within a reasonable time, plus a savings clause stating those five limitations were exclusive. The FCC (defendant) issued a declaratory ruling interpreting the reasonableness provision to impose a rebuttable timeliness presumption; the City of Arlington and other local governments (plaintiffs) argued the FCC lacked authority to interpret that provision at all, since the savings clause was ambiguous about the FCC's power to do so. The court of appeals upheld the FCC's ruling as reasonable under that ambiguity, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.