Industry lobbyists are hopeful President Donald Trump will announce a nominee as soon as this week for the remaining GOP FCC seat but hadn't received additional signals to indicate a nomination announcement was imminent. Chatter increased since the White House formalized Jessica Rosenworcel’s nomination last week to again be a Democratic commissioner (see 1706140065).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected public interest groups’ request for an emergency stay of the FCC’s restoration of the UHF ownership discount, and ended the administrative stay of the rule (see 1706070053). “Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending review,” said the order issued Thursday. “This is not very surprising, since stays are rarely granted. However, it is extremely disappointing,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represented Free Press, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Prometheus Radio Project and the others in the case. Since the restored discount’s effective date of June 5 passed during the administrative stay, the rule is effective immediately, an FCC spokesman said: “We are pleased by the court's decision.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has rejected public interest groups’ request for an emergency stay of the FCC’s restoration of the UHF discount, and ended the administrative stay of the rule. “Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending review,” said the order, issued Thursday. “This is not very surprising, since stays are rarely granted. However, it is extremely disappointing,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represented Free Press, Prometheus Radio Project, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Prometheus Radio Project and the other groups in the case. Since the restored discount’s effective date of June 5 passed during the administrative stay, the rule is effective immediately, an FCC spokesman told us. “We are pleased by the court's decision,” the spokesman said. The case will continue on the merits, attorneys told us.
President Donald Trump plans to nominate Jessica Rosenworcel to again be an FCC member, as expected (see our May 26 report), the White House said just before midnight last night. It noted that she was a commissioner from 2012 until January.
Federal judges shot down key parts of an FCC order that limited inmate calling service charges without regulating ICS provider "site commission" payments to correctional authorities. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated caps on intrastate ICS rates, use of industry-averaged cost data in setting rate caps, and exclusion of site commissions from industry costs. It remanded rate caps, ancillary fees and site-commission costs for further agency consideration. Judges Harry Edwards and Laurence Silberman approved the ruling and Cornelia Pillard largely dissented in Global Tel*Link v. FCC, No. 15-1461 (see 1706130012).
President Donald Trump plans to nominate Jessica Rosenworcel to again be an FCC member, as expected (see our May 26 report), the White House said just before midnight last night. It noted that she was a commissioner from 2012 until January.
A judicial administrative stay issued against FCC restoration of the UHF discount (see 1706010081) will keep the rule from coming back into effect on its planned June 5 effective date. It doesn’t indicate much about how the case will play out, attorneys said in interviews Friday. The stay is intended to give the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit enough time to consider the emergency request for stay filed by several public interest groups, “and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” said the order (in Pacer) issued Thursday evening. Since courts are able to reject outright emergency requests for stay, it should be mildly encouraging for public interest petitioners Free Press, Common Cause, Prometheus Radio Project and the others that the court asked the FCC for a response and set aside more time to consider the matter, said Fletcher Heald appellate lawyer Harry Cole.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made more than 40 media appearances in the three weeks before a party-line FCC vote OK'd an NPRM proposing to roll back Title II broadband regulation under the Communications Act (see 1705180029). Supporters said the aggressive outreach was politically savvy in the highly charged atmosphere. Ex-FCC Democrats saw nothing wrong, but net neutrality advocates said the appearances, including with numerous conservative voices, betray weakness and concern about rallying support amid opposition.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made more than 40 media appearances in the three weeks before a party-line FCC vote OK'd an NPRM proposing to roll back Title II broadband regulation under the Communications Act (see 1705180029). Supporters said the aggressive outreach was politically savvy in the highly charged atmosphere. Ex-FCC Democrats saw nothing wrong, but net neutrality advocates said the appearances, including with numerous conservative voices, betray weakness and concern about rallying support amid opposition.
The 11-year span between the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s filing of a petition on multilingual emergency alert system messages and the FCC denying that petition was a major focus of a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday. Judge Patricia Millett called the delay "dramatic” and the wait was the subject of several questions by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who said the commission was “moving slowly.”