Join 5G Lawsuit Against the Trump FCC - YES

It’s one thing to complain about the president in the context of one’s personal politics, but it’s another thing entirely when the Trump Administration’s egregious disregard for the Constitution affects Corte Madera’s rights to local control—and especially our right to protect public safety.

5G is the next generation of wireless technology currently being developed by telecom companies around the world. While it is expected to be massively faster than the current technology, health experts warn that there are concerns about 5G radiation's potential effects on human health that have not yet been adequately studied. In the face of reasonable doubt, many communities decided to act based on the precautionary principle, deferring installation of 5G facilities until their health implications have been further studied.

But then, in 2018, the FCC—stacked with hyper-partisan Trump appointees—released a new edict seeking to eliminate cities’ and towns’ ability to regulate 5G facilities in their jurisdictions.

Local control advocates were outraged, seeing a clear violation of the Constitution's 10th Amendment, while citizens—including many in our own community—were horrified at the prospect of having a new kind of electromagnetic radiation broadcast throughout their neighborhoods before its health effects were fully understood.

I don't claim to know whether or not 5G radiation is harmful to public health, as even the experts are still divided and unsure. But I do know that we should not be deploying new technology publicly before we know for certain that it's reasonably safe.

While I see litigation (especially against the federal government) as one of the most grave steps a municipality can take, in this instance I felt I had no choice but to vote for standing up to what seems to me a clear violation of our rights, and a clear abrogation of the federal government's duty to put public health and wellbeing first.