FCC Asks Supreme Court to Review Lower Court Ruling That Invalidated Media Ownership Rules

Story by Inside Radio

The Federal Communications Commission has asked the Supreme Court to review a 2019 Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision that struck down a variety of media ownership rule revisions adopted in 2017. The Solicitor General petitioned the nation’s highest court for what’s known as a writ of certiorari to review the decision in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC.

In a statement issued Friday afternoon, FCC chair Ajit Pai called the revisions the Commission made to its media ownership rules in November 2017 “long-overdue reforms” intended to “allow broadcasters to compete in today’s dynamic media marketplace.” Pai called the Third Circuit decision that overturned the rules, nearly two years after they were adopted, “the latest obstruction of Commission action and congressional intent in several cases over the last 17 years.” These decisions, Pai said, “have frozen in place decades-old ownership restrictions that have outlived their competitive usefulness in the digital age.”

The latest legal battle over media ownership rules landed in court after the FCC voted 3-2 in November 2017 to abolished the newspaper-broadcast and TV-radio cross-ownership bans, rework the radio AM-FM subcap regulations, and relax several television ownership restrictions, including allowing the same company to own two of the big network affiliates in a single market. Several public interest groups challenged the moves and, in a 2-1 decision issued in September 2019, the Third Circuit struck down the changes. It also blocked the FCC’s plans to create a radio incubator program designed to boost the number of women and minority owners.

Pai’s statement went on to note that the FCC solicited extensive public input, reviewed “voluminous record materials,” and put in place policies intended to strengthen local news outlets. “Absent further action by the Supreme Court, broadcasters will continue to be saddled with outdated regulations,” Pai said. “The Supreme Court’s intervention is necessary to restore the Commission’s discretion to regulate in the public interest and modernize media ownership regulation for the digital age, as Congress intended.”