From the outset, putting CALEA into effect has been mired in controversy. Under the Act, disputes can be taken to the FCC, which is supposed to balance the competing interests of privacy, law enforcement and industry. The FCC, however, brushed aside privacy and cost concerns and, in an August 1999 decision, sided largely with the FBI. The FCC ruled that wireless companies must provide location information on callers, that companies were allowed to deliver packet communications to the government even when the government was not authorized to intercept them, and that carriers had to build six additional surveillance capabilities sought by the FBI.

In November 1999, the telecommunications industry and privacy groups challenged the FCC decision by filing judicial appeals, which have been consolidated in the US Court of Appeals in DC.

CDT filed its petition jointly with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. The joint petition challenges the FCC's requirement that companies locate and track wireless phone users. CDT and CTIA also ask the court to overturn the Commission's ruling allowing the government to intercept the content of "packet" communications without a judicial warrant.

• D.C. Circuit opinion, August 15, 2000
• CDT/CTIA/USTA Reply Brief, April 4, 2000
• CDT/CTIA/USTA Brief: January 20, 2000
  This opening brief provides a summary of CALEA and spells out the constitutional and other legal challenges to the FCC order.
• CDT/CTIA Petition for Review: November 22, 1999

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