US DoJ wants Ligado $50bn lawsuit dismissed
November 2, 2026

By Chris Forrester



The US Department of Justice (DoJ) is again calling for the US Court of Federal Claims to dismiss Ligado Networks’ approximately $50 billion (€44.5bn) lawsuit against the DoJ.

Last week, a motion was filed by the DoJ saying the lawsuit has no merit as it does not come with protected rights.


The action centres on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocating L-band licences to Ligado in 2020. Ligado in a now long-running action argues that its efforts to deploy and commercialise L-band satellite spectrum terrestrially were roadblocked because undisclosed military systems were using or relied on the frequencies.

At its heart, Ligado is claiming that the US government has taken private property – the licences – for public use.

“The government’s motion to dismiss argues that an FCC spectrum license, even one worth billions of dollars, can be taken by the federal government without any compensation,” Ligado CEO Doug Smith said in a statement. “If accepted, that position would unsettle the spectrum marketplace, deter investment in next-generation communications, and put future innovation at risk. Ligado will defend its rights in court and continue seeking just compensation for the taking of its exclusive rights to use its licensed spectrum.”

The DoJ is counter-arguing that Ligado obtained the licences for ‘free’ from the FCC and without an auction. “Ligado cannot demonstrate that the FCC granted it the right to exclude non-FCC federal agencies, such as Depaartment of War (DoW) in its ATC licence, and the court cannot read a right to exclude those agencies into the licence,” the DoJ said in its motion.

“The government’s argument that an FCC-issued spectrum licence not acquired at an FCC auction is somehow unique is as damaging as it is nonsensical,” Ligado counsel Gerry Waldron said to Space News. “Damaging from an industry point of view since companies as diverse as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon LEO have made significant investments in such licenses that are similar to Ligado’s spectrum. Nonsensical because it ignores the thousands of licences that the FCC has issued without auctions, including all those before Ligado’s licence and — as with SpaceX and Amazon LEO — many licences granted by the FCC in recent years.”

The Court of Federal Claims wants Ligado’s response by December 7th.