EMT Asks Bankruptcy Court to Stay FCC ALJ Proceeding

proceeding to allow the bankruptcy to proceed but also filed an emergency motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Bankruptcy law that requires an automatic stay of proceedings involving property involved in a bankruptcy action “clearly prevents” the FCC from taking action on EMT's licenses “without relief from this Court to take such action,” EMT told the court. “This case appears to have been filed for the sole purpose of interfering with the ongoing administrative proceeding so that the defendants in that proceeding can sell the Licenses before the ALJ determines whether they are qualified licensees,” responded the Illinois U.S. Attorney's Office, representing the FCC. The commission has “the exclusive right to grant a license to use the airwaves and to approve any transfer of a license by a licensee,” the U.S. Attorney argued. EMT said in a status report submitted to the ALJ that it had sought to settle with the Enforcement Bureau but the bureau took a “hostile posture, refusing the notion of settlement at all.” EMT and its trustees “fundamentally misunderstand that the Commission, and not the Bankruptcy Court, has exclusive authority to determine whether the licenses at issue can be considered assets of the bankruptcy,” the EB said.