Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once stood before the D.C. Circuit armed with 11,000 pages of peer-reviewed evidence—oxidative-stress assays, neurology papers, fetal-development reports—and convinced the three-judge panel that the Federal Communications Commission had not “reasonably explained” why its 1996 limits still protect the public. The court agreed, remanding the rules and telling the FCC to face the non-thermal science it had ignored for a quarter-century. law.justia.com
Nearly four years later the remand still gathers dust in Washington. The Commission has published marketplace reports and spectrum auctions, but no new biologically relevant standard. docs.fcc.gov Meanwhile, the literature Kennedy lodged into the record has only grown: recent cell-culture and animal models tie weak RF exposures to reactive-oxygen-species cascades, mitochondrial dysregulation, even endothelial-cell proliferation below thermal thresholds. frontiersin.org
Against that backdrop comes the “America-First” Trump T1 smartphone. Branding aside, its RF compliance will almost certainly ride on the very guidelines the court found wanting. Worse, Section 704 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act still handcuffs every mayor, county board, and state legislature: if the FCC stamps “compliant” on a device or tower, local officials are legally barred from saying “not in our backyard” on health grounds. wireless.fcc.gov
So the questions for Secretary Kennedy write themselves:
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Has HHS briefed the Trump Organization on the court’s finding that today’s SAR metric fails to address oxidative stress, blood–brain-barrier leakage, or child-size anatomy?
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Will the White House commission third-party tests that go beyond the six-minute, adult-phantom protocol—using smaller head models, real-world grip positions, simultaneous-transmit modes, and whole-body-average metrics?
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If those tests reveal higher biologically weighted exposures, will President Trump order design changes—lower-power radios, Li-Fi–first indoor mode, user-selectable “eco” firmware—before the first unit ships?
Kennedy’s courtroom triumph created an evidentiary bridge between the bench and the laboratory. Yet Section 704 still dynamites the other end of that bridge by silencing communities and courts once the FCC rubber-stamps compliance. Unless the statute is repealed—or at least re-interpreted to restore local due process—even a gold-plated, “Made-in-USA” handset can waltz to market under a safety regime the judiciary already called inadequate.
Trump built a brand on questioning the status quo; Kennedy built a career on cross-examining captured regulators. If “draining the swamp” means replacing obsolete, industry-written rules with science-driven policy, the administration has a ready-made pilot project:
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Order the FCC to finish the remand with a full review of the 11,000-page biological record and the fresh wave of ROS-centric studies.
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Support repeal (or constitutional narrowing) of Section 704, restoring both local control and First Amendment speech on environmental health.
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Make the T1 the first phone to pass a post-remand, biology-aware standard—a flagship for public health rather than another flagship RF emitter.
Anything less will look like a gold nameplate riveted to yesterday’s science—and tomorrow’s liability. The American consumer deserves more than patriotic marketing; they deserve proof that “America-First” also means “Safety-First.”
