On January 14, 2008, Mike Watza, supported by associate Cheryl Verran, together with co-counsel Joe Van Eaton of Washington D.C., argued and conducted a mini-trial with 7 witnesses. Following the mini-trial, the Federal Court issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on behalf of several Michigan municipalities, preventing Comcast from moving public, educational and government (PEG) channels from analog to digital service. Without this injunction, approximately 400,000 Michigan cable subscribers would have lost their ability to view PEG channels unless they paid substantial extra costs for additional equipment and service. Mike and co-counsel are also actively authoring State legislation as well as assisting in Congressional hearings on the same subject.

The text of the Meridian-Dearborn court’s order is linked below.

Selected pleadings from the case are linked below:

Complaint (1/10/08)

Cities’ Memorandum of Law in Support of Motions for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction (1/10/08)

Comcast’s brief opposing motion for preliminary injunction (1/12/08)

Cities’ reply brief (1/13/08)

Congressional reactions:

News release from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce applauding Michigan court decision (1/15/08)

Hon. John Dingell’s 12/21/07 letter to Comcast regarding its proposed PEG channel move

Comcast’s Jan. 7, 2008, response to Chairman Dingell’s letter