Law Commons^™

The October 2008 Term: First Amendment And Then Some, Burt Neuborne

Touro Law Review

Liberals must acknowledge a dirty little secret about American constitutional law; a secret that the Warren Court made apparent, though it had existed from the day John Marshall asserted the power of judicial review in a Constitution that says nothing about it. The secret is that there is no serious theory explaining or justifying what courts actually do when they strike down a statute as unconstitutional.

The Warren years were enormously important in moving the country forward. I do not know what we would have done without the wisdom and courage of the Court. But when you start looking for …

The First Amendment, Gaming Advertisements, And Congressional Inconsistency: The Future Of The Commercial Speech Doctrine After Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Ass'n V. United States, Nicholas P. Consula

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Political Advertisements In The Era Of Fleeting Indecent Images And Utterances, Lavonda N. Reed-Huff

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Political Advertisements in the Era of Fleeting Indecent Images and Utterances by LaVonda N. Reed-Huff This article is both timely and beneficial to the legal profession in its analysis of the Federal Communications Commission’s (the “FCC”) efforts to craft regulations regarding broadcast indecency and to address the prevalence of increasingly sexually suggestive material in political broadcast advertisements. This five-part article explores the statutory dilemma facing broadcasters who are presented political broadcast advertisements that contain indecent material. This dilemma is presented by the intersection of three federal statutes. One federal statute, 47 U.S.C. § 312, grants candidates for federal elective office …

Go To Our Website For More (Of The Same): Reassessing Federal Policy Towards Newspapers Mergers And Cross Media Ownership And The Harm To Localism, Diversity And The Public Interest, Jason Zenor

Jason Zenor

Newspapers are workhorse of local news industry and this information is important in order to have an informed citizenry. But, the conventional wisdom is that newspapers are an endangered species and that something drastic needs to be done if this form of media is going to survive. Many proactive solutions have been forwarded such as charging for online content, using tablet and smartphone technology to publish newspapers and making newspapers more assessable to younger and more diverse generations. Another more conceding solution is to allow for greater relaxation on newspapers mergers and cross media ownership rules. But, this solution would …

How The Traditional Property Rights Model Informs The Broadcast Television Spectrum Rationalization Challenge, J. Armand Musey Cfa

J. Armand Musey, CFA

This paper examines the prospective role of zoning rights and eminent domain in the Federal Communication Commission’s (“FCC”) challenge of reallocating underutilized television broadcast spectrum for use in significantly higher value mobile broadband applications. The government must reallocate the spectrum in an economically and legally efficient manner, balancing the interests of the politically powerful broadcasters and those of society as a whole. Recently, the government has decided to explore ways to incentivize the broadcasters to voluntarily return their spectrum licenses. From a strictly legal perspective, the broadcasters have a relatively weak claim to property rights. However, the government has indicated …

Assessing Competition In U.S. Wireless Markets: Review Of The Fcc’S Competition Reports, Gerald R. Faulhaber, Robert W. Halm, Hal J. Singer

Federal Communications Law Journal

The FCC's 14th and 15th Annual Wireless Competition reports review a wide variety of evidence, both direct (how firms and customers behave) and indirect (industry concentration measures) in making its competitive assessment. The reports are silent on how to interpret this evidence. In contrast, modem antitrust analysis relies far more on direct evidence. In failing to put more weight on the relevant direct market evidence to reach an informed competitive assessment, the 14th and 15th reports invite erroneous conclusions about the state of competition in wireless markets. The authors are concerned that these erroneous conclusions eventually could adversely influence regulatory …

Net Neutrality And Nondiscrimination Norms In Telecommunications, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

“Net neutrality” refers to the principle that broadband providers should not discriminate when transporting content and applications over the Internet. After several years of debate, the Federal Communications Commission adopted binding net neutrality rules in December 2010. The cornerstone of this regime is a binding rule that forbids broadband providers from unreasonably discriminating when delivering Internet traffic.The prohibition on unreasonable discrimination has a long pedigree in telecommunications law, and net neutrality proponents have long asserted the need to extend that nondiscrimination norm to cyberspace. But the Commission’s net neutrality rules impose far greater obligations on broadband providers than the law …

Bleeeeep! The Regulation Of Indecency, Isolated Nudity, And Fleeting Expletives In Broadcast Media: An Uncertain Future For Pacifica V. Fcc, Danielle Weatherby

Danielle Weatherby