Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/319/239/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-06-25 11:26:56
Document Index: 224967938

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 3', '§ 309', '§ 312', '§ 303', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 402', '§ 402', '§ 312', '§ 402']

FCC V. NATIONAL BROADCASTING CO., INC., 319 U. S. 239 (1943) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
US Supreme Court Decisions On-Line> Volume 319 > FCC V. NATIONAL BROADCASTING CO., INC., 319 U. S. 239 (1943)
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Certiorari, 317 U.S. 624, to review a judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversing an order of the Federal Communications Commission. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The respondent petitioned to intervene. Its petition was denied. It then moved to dismiss WHDH's application chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
A hearing was held January 29 and 30, 1940, but the respondent was not permitted to appear or participate. December 9, 1940, the Commission promulgated proposed findings of fact and conclusions. Two commissioners dissented. All agreed that Secs. 3.22 and 3.25 of the regulations precluded a grant of WHDH's application. Three voted to modify those regulations and to grant the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The petitioner urges the grant of WHDH's application did not amount to a substantial modification of KOA's license or so affect KOA's rights as to require that KOA be permitted to intervene, and that, in any event, KOA was not denied any substantial right of participation in the proceeding. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Commission found that there would be interference with KOA's broadcast in the eastern part of the United States if WHDH's application were granted. The Commission's own reports to Congress show that, at night, a small proportion of the urban population and a much larger proportion of the rural population of the country enjoy only such broadcasting service as is afforded by clear channel stations. KOA, one of the stations upon which this service depends, has operated continuously at Denver since 1924, and has used a clear channel upon which only one station is permitted to operate during the night. Under the Commission's regulations (§§ 3.22 and 3.25), KOA had therefore little or no channel interference from any station located within the United States. In addition, its signals throughout the United States were free, and entitled to remain free, of channel interference from any station in Canada, Mexico or Cuba, pursuant to the provisions of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. [Footnote 9] The Commission's order deprives KOA of freedom from interference in its night service over a large area lying east of the Mississippi River. Furthermore, the order opens the way for Canada, Mexico, and Cuba, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Commission says that the section has no application to this case. It asserts that the proceeding was an application by WHDH for modification of its station license, and that, under § 309(a) of the Act, the Commission might have acted on the application without any hearing. So much may be conceded if nothing more were involved. But the grant of WHDH's application, in the circumstances, necessarily involved the modification of KOA's outstanding license. This petitioner denies, saying KOA's license granted no more than the privilege of operating its station in a prescribed manner, and that the grant of WHDH's application in nowise altered the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
These rules were incorporated into the terms of KOA's license, which granted it a frequency of 850 kilocycles and a power of 50 kilowatts. To alter the rules so as to deprive KOA of what had been assigned to it, and to grant an application which would create interference on the channel given it, was in fact and in substance to modify KOA's license. This being so, § 312(b) requires that it be made a party to the proceeding. We can accord no other meaning to the language of the proviso which requires that the holder of the license which is to be modified must have notice in writing of the proposed action and the grounds therefor, and must be given a reasonable chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It would be anomalous if one entitled to be heard before the Commission should be denied the right of appeal from an order made without hearing. We think the Act does not preclude such an appeal. Section 402(b)(2) permits an appeal to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
§ 303(a)(b)(c). Accordingly, the Commission has established a plan for allocating the available radio facilities among the stations of the country. Under its Rules, there are three classes of standard broadcast channels: "clear channels," on which dominant chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On October 25, 1938, Station WHDH in Boston, Massachusetts, a class II station licensed to operate during the daytime only on the frequency 830 kilocycles (a class I-A channel) with power of 1 kilowatt, applied to the Commission for modification of its license so that it could operate both night and day on that frequency with increased power of 5 kilowatts. At that time, Station KOA in Denver, Colorado, was the dominant class I station chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court holds that the Commission was required as a matter of law to grant KOA's petition to intervene in the hearing upon the WHDH application. In my judgment, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Act explicitly provides for a "hearing," therefore, when the Commission proposes to deny an application for a license, or to revoke a license, or to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
KOA's petition for intervention was denied, presumably because the showing required by § 1.102 had not been made. And, on January 29 and 30, 1940, a hearing upon the WHDH application was held before an examiner of the Commission. Although KOA was denied the right to intervene, it could, under § 1.195 of the Commission's Rules, have appeared and given evidence. That rule provides that the Secretary of the Commission shall maintain "a record of all communications received by the Commission relating to the merits of any application pending before the Commission," and, if the application is designated for hearing, the Secretary must notify all persons who have communicated with the Commission regarding the application "in order that such persons will have an opportunity to appear and give evidence at such hearing." Under this rule. if KOA had appeared at the hearing upon the WHDH application, it would have been entitled to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On December 16, 1940, KOA again petitioned to intervene. Its petition alleged only that the proposed action, if adopted, would result in "interference to Station KOA in areas where KOA's signals are now interference-free," would constitute a modification of KOA's license without affording it an opportunity to be heard, and would result in chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In order to carry out the provisions of the Agreement, the United States was obliged to make extensive adjustments in the assignments of its existing stations. As part of the accommodations required, stations assigned to the frequency 830 kilocycles were to be moved to 850 kilocycles. This change affected both WHDH and KOA. The license of KOA, like that of all other standard broadcast stations, would have expired on August 1, 1940, while the WHDH application was pending. The licenses of all stations, including KOA and WHDH, were successively extended by the Commission, first to October 1, 1940, and then to March 29, 1941, the effective date of the Agreement. KOA had filed an application for renewal of its license to operate on 830 kilocycles, 50 kilowatts, unlimited time. On February 4, 1941, the Commission advised all applicants for renewals, including KOA, that, under the Agreement, their operating assignments were to be changed, and that their applications for renewals would be regarded as applications to operate upon the new frequencies unless the applicant wished to operate upon some other frequency, in which event its application would be designated for hearing. So far as appears, KOA did not notify the Commission that it had any objection to its renewal application's being regarded as an application to operate on the frequency 850 kilocycles. Accordingly, when its license to operate on 830 kilocycles expired on March 29, 1941, its license was renewed on the frequency 850 kilocycles. In no sense, therefore, did the action of the Commission changing KOA's frequency assignment pursuant to the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement constitute a modification of KOA's license. And, indeed, KOA makes no such contention here, for review of Commission orders modifying station licenses, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The court below could not take jurisdiction of the suit unless KOA had a right to appeal under § 402(b)(2) -- in other words, unless it was "aggrieved" or its "interests were adversely affected" by the granting of the WHDH application. Since the Commission, in exercising its licensing function, must be governed by the public interest, and not the private interest of existing licensees, an appellant under § 402(b)(2) appears only to vindicate the public interest, and not his own. Federal Communications Comm'n v. Sanders Radio Station, 309 U. S. 470, 642; Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. v. Federal Communications Comm'n, 316 U. S. 4. That the Commission's order may impair the value of an existing station's license is, in itself, no ground for invalidating the order; it merely may create standing to attack the validity of the order on other grounds. Whatever doubts may have existed as to whether the ingredients of "case" or "controversy," as defined, for example, in Muskrat v. United States, 219 U. S. 346, are present in this situation were dispelled by our ruling in the Sanders chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In order to establish its right to appeal, therefore, KOA had to make a showing that its interests were substantially impaired by a grant of the WHDH application. This, the record makes clear, it failed to do. In its notice of appeal to the court below, KOA made only a general allegation -- what courts normally regard as a conclusion of law -- that the Commission's action resulted in a "substantial modification" of its license. No supporting allegations of fact were tendered. There was no claim that KOA's economic position was in any way impaired, or that the proposed operation of WHDH would cause substantial chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
KOA does not claim that it did not have sufficient notice, formal and otherwise, of the proceedings upon the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court holds, nevertheless, that the Commission was required to afford KOA more than all these opportunities to show cause. Section 312(b) is construed to require a hearing in which the licensee whose interests may be affected is entitled to intervene as a formal party. Such a construction appears to me to disregard the structure and language of the legislative scheme. Congress might have been explicit and provided in § 312(b) that every licensee whose interests may be affected by Commission action shall be entitled to a hearing as an intervenor in the proceeding. As has been noted, the draftsmen of the Communications Act of 1934 knew how to use apt words when they wished to afford parties before the Commission the right of "hearing." Section 309(a) requires the Commission to afford an applicant for a license a "hearing," not notice and an opportunity to show cause, before the application can be denied. Section 312(a) gives a licensee a "hearing," not notice and an opportunity to show cause, before its license can be revoked. Section 303(f) provides that the Commission cannot change the frequency, authorized power, or times of operation of a licensee unless it affords such licensee a "public hearing," not merely notice and an opportunity to show cause. But, for reasons chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Can it seriously be claimed that the Commission acted beyond its authority in providing that, before a licensee can intervene in another proceeding, he must indicate some solid ground by setting forth "the facts on which the petitioner bases his claim that his intervention will be in the public interest"? Otherwise, anyone who asserts generally that the grant of another's application will affect his license may become a party to a proceeding before the Commission and may, to the extent to which a party can shape and distort the direction of a proceeding, gain all the opportunities that a party has to affect a litigation although he has not made even a preliminary showing that his intervention will be in the public interest. I cannot read the requirement for "reasonable opportunity to show cause why such an order of modification should not issue" as a denial to the Commission of power to make such a reasonable rule for sifting the responsibility of potential intervenors. And if the Commission's rule for intervention was within its discretionary authority in formulating appropriate rules of procedure for the conduct of its proceedings, it is equally clear that the Commission, in the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
I agree with the Court that, if as we held in the 309 U. S. 20-21, whether Congress endowed private litigants with the power to vindicate the public interest when it gave the right to appeal under § 402(b) to a person "aggrieved or whose interests are adversely affected" by a decision of the Commission. I also expressed my concern in that case with the constitutionality of a statutory scheme which allowed one who showed no invasion of a private right to call on the courts to review an order of the Commission. See Muskrat v. United States, 219 U. S. 346. But if we accept as constitutionally valid a system of judicial review invoked by a private person who has no individual substantive right to protect, but who has standing only as a representative of the public interest, * then I think we must be exceedingly scrupulous to see to it that his interest in the matter is substantial and immediate. Otherwise, we will not only permit the administrative process to be clogged by judicial review; we will most assuredly run afoul of the constitutional requirement of case or controversy. Federal Radio Commission v. General Electric Co.,@ 281 U. S. 464.
Any actual controversy which may now be present in this case is between KOA and the Commission. Any controversy which existed between WHDH and the Commission has come to an end. United States v. Alaska S.S. Co., 253 U. S. 113, 253 U. S. 116. The interest, if any, of the appellant KOA is the interest of a private person and accordingly must be measured in terms of private injury. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary