A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against so-called...
A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against so-called pirate radio operators’ challenge to a $10,000 FCC fine (CD Aug 21 p14) doesn’t clear up potential jurisdictional issues between federal appeals and district courts, a communications lawyer uninvolved in…
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the case wrote. The New Orleans-based court ruled last week that Jerry and Deborah Stevens lacked legal standing to raise issues involving the agency’s jurisdiction in a U.S. District Court and instead should have raised the issue in the 5th Circuit, noted Fletcher Heald’s Mitchell Lazarus. At play is Section 504 of the Communications Act requiring the FCC to collect fines by bringing a case against an entity that won’t pay by suing in a district court, and that challenges to any agency’s order must be filed in a U.S. Court of Appeals, he wrote on the law firm’s blog Monday (http://xrl.us/bnmofa). “The Fifth Circuit’s try for a clean split between questions of fact and questions of law may look like a convenient way of dividing the baby” by considering the Stevens’ challenge an appeals court issue of legal arguments going beyond only the fine that would be for a district court, the attorney said. “But reality is not always that tidy. Often the recipient of a Forfeiture Order will want to raise defenses that intermix factual and legal arguments. Can he do this in district court, after waiting for the FCC to bring suit? The Fifth Circuit does not say."