United States Ninth Circuit

In a challenge to federal statutory restrictions on certain types of advertising by public broadcast TV stations, the district court's grant of summary judgment to the FCC is: 1) affirmed in part, where 47 U.S.C. section 399b(a)(1), restricting paid advertisements for goods and services on behalf of for-profit corporations, was not an unconstitutional speech restriction under the intermediate scrutiny standard; 2) reversed in part, where sections 399b(a)(2) and (3), restricting public-issue advertisements and political advertisements, were unconstitutional speech restrictions under intermediate scrutiny, as there was no evidence of harm to a substantial governmental interest.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/12/2012
• Published 04/12/2012

Judges

• Bea

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Walter E. Diercks, Mark B. Stern