Mobile industry asks judge to halt Berkeley’s RF disclosures

Can a city make it easier for cell phone users to learn about RF energy?A federal judge in San Francisco is set to hear arguments today on a city's ability to force cell phone retailers to reiterate government information regarding radiofrequency (RF) energy absorption.

In the civil suit, the American cell phone trade group wants a judge to declare Berkeley’s new municipal ordinance, which would require new such disclosures at the point of sale, invalid. The law, which passed in May 2015, was scheduled to take effect in August 2015, but the legal case aims to halt it.

The case, known as CTIA v. City of Berkeley, pits two giants of the legal world against one another: on the side of the plaintiffs is Ted Olson, a former solicitor general under the George W. Bush Administration. Meanwhile, the defendants are armed with presidential hopeful and rockstar Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig.