Take Up Prometheus Appeal, Solicitor General Asks SCOTUS
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Prometheus rulings left the FCC with “no apparent path forward,” acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall told the Supreme Court Thursday in a reply brief urging the court take up the commission’s appeal…
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of Prometheus IV (see 2007210058). The 3rd Circuit’s repeated rulings against the FCC’s quadrennial broadcast ownership review orders require empirical analysis of the effect of rule changes on ownership diversity while striking down any such rule change, he said. “Remitting the Commission to yet another round of administrative review” would “merely prolong the FCC’s inability to fulfill its obligations.” SCOTUS review is needed to undo “damage to the Nation’s broadcast markets” and allow the FCC to respond to market developments, said the solicitor general. The public interest groups that won before the 3rd Circuit argued the FCC didn’t have justification to roll back ownership rules, but the government said that's a mischaracterization: The agency concluded there were “compelling competitive justifications” for loosening the rules and no data showing it would hurt female and minority ownership, so “the bare possibility that loosening the rules would have that adverse effect was not a sufficient reason to forgo an otherwise beneficial regulatory change." NAB is also expected to file a reply brief, due Aug. 19. A decision on whether to grant cert is expected in late September or early October, attorneys said. If the high court takes the case, it likely wouldn’t be argued until after the election, they said.