Suing the FCC: Hurry Up, Already

The L.A. Times reports (reg. req.) on industry chatter that broadcasters are finally prepared to sue the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its application of indecency rulings and fines. Test cases may include St. Bono's enthusiastic expletive at the 2003 Golden Globes, or the Fox Married by America whipped cream licking and spanking national nightmare. (The Bono case, strangely, didn't even involve a fine, merely a reprimand–over the advice of FCC's own staff.)

Usually citizens bedeviled by regulatory agencies have to exhaust administrative channels within the agencies before taking it to federal court. But lawyers for broadcasters think they might get away with arguing that

the FCC is violating broadcasters' constitutional rights to due process and free speech by not resolving disputes in a timely manner.

"Ordinarily it is very hard to get a court to agree to hear something if you haven't exhausted your administrative remedies," said Andrew Schwartzman, president of Media Access Project, a Washington watchdog group. "But here I think the argument can be made that [broadcasters] are being deprived of a fundamental constitutional right."

For their part, FCC officials said they expected an eventual legal challenge.

Very savvy of the FCC, and I hope they get one soon, and good and hard.

Reason's feature interview from our Dec. 2004 issue with outgoing FCC chief Michael Powell, which touches on this and many other FCC issues, here.