FCC Trying to Confuse DC Circuit, FAB Says
The FCC argument that Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia's challenge of the incentive auction rules is relitigating issues settled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's ruling in the previous Mako case (see 1611150021) is “a subtle…
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but characteristic attempt to confuse the Court,” said Free Access in a reply brief filed Tuesday. Free Access isn't arguing that low-power TV stations should be protected in the auction but that the agency overstepped its authority in constructing the auction as it did, FAB said: “That is what confronts the Court in this landmark auction case: an administrative agency which decides its own unilateral policy, to the disdain of the enabling legislation and statutory limits on its powers, and that then tries to insulate its actions from judicial scrutiny with misdirection, makeweight justiciability objections and mutually inconsistent excuses.” Auction rules violate the Administrative Procedure Act and should be vacated or reversed, FAB said.