Denied Ky. AM Station Licensee Seeks Rehearing En Banc at D.C. Circuit
Gerald Parks, licensee of AM station WEKC Williamsburg, Kentucky, seeks a panel rehearing and rehearing en banc at the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit of the panel’s Aug. 10 denial of his petition for mandamus relief (see 2308110028),…
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said his new petition Wednesday (docket 23-1078). Parks contends his license remains in effect while his 2012 renewal application is pending at the FCC. His new petition said the panel declined to enforce the plain language of a provision of the Communications Act that requires the FCC to “continue in effect” all broadcast licenses that remain the subject of renewal applications pending before the agency. The panel instead said that plain language didn’t clearly and indisputably overcome Parks’ failure to comply with a Media Bureau “extra-statutory policy,” never approved by the full commission, “requiring applicants to file a second license renewal application on top of one still pending,” said his petition. By allowing bureau policy to “effectively nullify” the plain language of the Communications Act, the D.C. Circuit’s Aug. 10 order “conflicts with decisions” of both the U.S. Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit, it said. “Consideration by the full court is therefore necessary to secure and maintain uniformity” of the D.C. Circuit’s decisions, it said. It’s “axiomatic” that FCC staff “may not lawfully implement policies that contravene obligations imposed on the agency by statute,” said the petition. In Parks’ case, FCC staff “has adopted a policy which overrides plain statutory language clearly requiring the agency to continue the life of a broadcast license so long as an application for renewal of that license remains pending,” it said. The “directive” of Section 307(c)(3) of the Communications Act couldn’t be “more plain,” it said.