Whether Tues. Supreme Court decision dismissing appeal of 1995 Ad...
Whether Tues. Supreme Court decision dismissing appeal of 1995 Adarand case will have any impact on pending appeal of U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., rejection of FCC EEO rules depends on who you ask. Govt. official, who asked not to…
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be named, said order would have no impact at all, while Andrew Schwartzman of Media Access Project believed it would. Had Supreme Court issued decision on new Adarand appeal (dealing with nonbroadcast matters but cited by Appeals Court in twice rejecting FCC rules as unconstitutional [CD Jan 17 p1]), he told us, ruling “would have had a dramatic impact” on pending appeal of rejection of FCC rules by lower court and would have made it much more likely that Supreme Court would accept that appeal. Govt. didn’t appeal FCC EEO ruling, but Minority Media Telecom Council (MMTC) did. After first accepting case, Supreme Court refused to issue opinion in latest Adarand appeal because, it said, new issues were brought up that never were considered by lower courts: “Petitioner [Adarand Constructors Inc.] urges us to take on this task ourselves and apply strict scrutiny to a complex web of statutes and regulations without benefit of any lower court review.” Justices haven’t announced whether they would accept MMTC appeal of FCC rules and U.S. Solicitor Gen. hasn’t filed govt.’s position with Supreme Court. Appeals Court rejected first set of FCC EEO rules in 1998, 2nd set of rules last Jan. In not joining MMTC appeal, FCC Chmn. Powell has said agency soon will come up with new set of EEO requirements that it expects will withstand court review.