The U.S. Supreme Court case Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Attorney General of Missouri v. Missouri Municipal League et al., 2003 revolved around the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which allowed any entity to provide telecommunications services unless a state law prohibited it. The State of Missouri had laws preventing municipalities from offering such services and these were challenged by the Missouri Municipal League who argued that they should be considered an "entity" under federal law and thus permitted to offer telecoms services in their jurisdictions. However, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Nixon, upholding the state's right to restrict its subdivisions from providing telecommunications services. The court stated that when Congress used “any entity” in this context, it did not clearly express an intent to include political subdivisions within that term’s scope or preempt states' authority over their own subdivisions.

In the dissenting opinion for Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, Justice Scalia disagreed with the majority's interpretation of federal law as preempting state laws that prohibit municipalities from providing telecommunications services. He argued that Congress did not clearly express an intent to override states' traditional authority over their political subdivisions in this area. Instead, he believed that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was ambiguous on this point and should be interpreted in a way that preserves states' rights to control their own municipalities. Furthermore, he contended that it is not within the Court’s purview to decide whether allowing municipal provision of telecommunications services would advance or hinder federal policy goals; such determinations are best left to lawmakers.