[opendtv] News: Justice Delays Firing at Prometheus
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:22:18 -0500
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA489257.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
Justice Delays Firing at Prometheus
By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/20/2004 4:21:00 PM
The Bush administration and the Federal Communications Commission
have asked for more time to decide whether and how to ask the Supreme
Court to uphold sweeping broadcast deregulation approved by the
commission in 2003.
Monday, they asked the high court for more time to think it over.
Much of the deregulation was thrown out by a federal appeals court in
June on a challenge by Prometheus Radio Project.
If the Supreme Court grants the extension, the federal government
will have until Jan. 31 to file an appeal; otherwise the petition is
due Jan. 3.
The FCC won't comment on the case and lawyers for the U.S. Solicitor
General's office did not give the court specific reasons for seeking
an extension.
However, the five commissioners recently completed a complicated and
contentious rewrite of telephone rules and has had little time to
focus on other major proceedings.
Media lawyers following the broadcast ownership case say the FCC has
no clear path to a Supreme Court challenge and may be having trouble
coming up with a rationale likely to succeed.
That's because the lower court's order to rewrite the broadcast rules
does not meet the obvious criteria for winning an appeal hearing.
The order, handed down by the federal appeals court in Philadelphia
does not conflict with any other court rulings and there are no
constitutional arguments the FCC could make without putting a huge
portion of its media regulation at risk of being overturned.
On the other hand, a number of high profile media companies wouldn't
mind putting that huge portion at risk, recognizing that the case
offers a long-shot chance of eliminating burdensome ownership rules
and possibly other regulations. They have indicated that they will
ask the court to strike down broadcast ownership regulation as
unconstitutional.
In previous filings to the court, several broadcasters hinted they
will ask the court to review whether its 1969 Red Lion decision
upholding scarcity as a rationale for regulation, continues to apply.
The FCC, however, is unlikely to sign on to such a sweeping challenge
because striking down Red Lion could jeopardize other broadcast
regulation, such as indecency restrictions and children's programming
quotas.
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