Operators of an unlicensed Austin, Texas, FM station lost a challenge to...
Operators of an unlicensed Austin, Texas, FM station lost a challenge to U.S. efforts to collect a $10,000 FCC fine, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week (http://xrl.us/bnmh7s). Jerry and Deborah Stevens’ request to overturn a U.S.…
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District Court in Texas’s denial of their motion to dismiss the penalty was denied by Judge James Dennis. The lower court was right to decline to consider the Stevens’ arguments that the commission lacks jurisdiction to regulate interstate broadcasts, Dennis wrote for himself and fellow judges of the New Orleans-based court Jerry Smith and Eugene Davis. “As the district court recognized, it would be anomalous to permit an unlicensed broadcaster to circumvent the congressionally-mandated judicial review scheme and corresponding deadlines simply because the government must go to district court to recover the monetary penalty.” The Stevens had no comment on the ruling filed Friday on docket 11-50862 in U.S. v. Stevens. The FCC usually fines so-called pirate radio stations $10,000 each, and closed down dozens of them last year (CD Sept 28 p4).