Third Circuit Asked to Delay Implementation of Media Ownership Rules

The deregulatory changes the Federal Communications Commission recently adopted to its media ownership rules are due to take effect on Feb. 7. Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project, however, have filed an appeal of those rule changes in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and, as expected, have now asked the Court to delay the FCC’s implementation of those changes.

Interestingly, appellants here have not filed a traditional request for a stay. Rather, they have filed a petition for writ of mandamus. In that petition, they note that the Commission’s ownership orders (the August 2016 Order under former Chairman Wheeler and the December 2017 Reconsideration Order under Chairman Pai) were both adopted at least in part in response to a remand order from the Court. The petition argues that the Court should order the Commission to delay the effectiveness of the rule changes because the orders do not respond to that remand in so far as it directed the Commission to adopt a definition of “eligible entities” or conclude that it could not do so. The petition also argues that the Reconsideration Order does not address the impact its changes would have on minority and female ownership and that the consolidation allowed by the rule changes would likely have an adverse, and irreparable, effect on existing and potential female and minority owners.