Opinion ID: 699517
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Enforcement Scheme

Text: 4 Section 503(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 authorizes the Commission to impose a forfeiture for the violation of a Commission order or regulation. While these provisions govern all types of forfeitures, the appellants challenge them only insofar as they are used to impose forfeitures arising from the broadcast of allegedly indecent material. 5 The Commission may take either of two routes to impose a forfeiture. First, the Commission may proceed against a broadcaster under 47 U.S.C. Sec. 503(b)(3), which authorizes the Commission to determine the penalty after a hearing, subject to review in the court of appeals. 47 U.S.C. Secs. 402(a), 503(b)(3)(A). If, once the forfeiture determination becomes final, the penalty is not paid, then the Commission may refer the matter to the Attorney General for collection in the appropriate district court. 47 U.S.C. Sec. 503(b)(3)(B). In such a collection action, the validity and appropriateness of the final order imposing the forfeiture penalty shall not be subject to review. Id. While the Commission has stipulated that it generally does not use the procedures of Sec. 503(b)(3) in imposing forfeitures for broadcast indecency, it reserves the authority to do so whenever that would better serve the ends of justice. 47 C.F.R. Sec. 1.80(g). Although the appellants claim that these procedures ensure neither prompt administrative adjudication nor prompt completion of judicial review, they do not seriously challenge their constitutionality. In any event, because the Commission does not use Sec. 503(b)(3), we express no view upon the subject. 6 The alternative, and in practice the exclusive, means of imposing a forfeiture for the broadcast of indecent material is for the Commission to issue a notice of apparent liability to the broadcaster, setting forth the relevant facts and granting the potentially liable party an opportunity to show, in writing, ... why no such forfeiture penalty should be imposed. 47 U.S.C. Sec. 503(b)(4). The Commission initiates the forfeiture process only after receiving a complaint from a listener or viewer. The agency staff reviews each complaint to determine whether it suggests that there has been a violation of the ban on indecent broadcasting. In the course of this review, the staff may send the broadcaster a Letter of Inquiry seeking more information or inviting the broadcaster to respond to the complaint. After further consideration, the Commission decides whether to issue a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL). The stipulated facts in this case concerning the indecency cases pending when the complaint was filed in district court show that the Commission issues a NAL anywhere from six months to three years after the broadcast to which it relates. During that time, the broadcaster may or may not be aware that the agency is considering whether the broadcast at issue contained indecent material. 7 The NAL is both sent to the broadcaster and published in the FCC Record. The NAL advises the broadcaster of its apparent liability for a forfeiture in a stated amount for an apparent violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1464, and gives the broadcaster 30 days to pay or otherwise to respond. See, e.g., Letter to Mr. Mel Karmazin, President, Sagittarius Broadcasting Corporation, 5 F.C.C. Rcd 7291 (December 7, 1990). Once the broadcaster has responded or the 30 days have run, the Commission decides whether to order the forfeiture. As far as we can discern from the current record, the FCC has never failed to impose a forfeiture after issuing a NAL. 8 The Commission's internal guidelines exhort the responsible officials to initiate forfeiture orders expeditiously, generally within 60 days after issuance of [the NAL]. In the seven instances in which the Commission imposed a forfeiture between January 1987 and March 1993, it took from two to 23 months--and an average of approximately nine months--for the FCC to make its decision. 9 Generally the forfeiture order recapitulates the history of the case, addresses any arguments raised by the broadcaster in response to the NAL, and orders payment of the forfeiture within 30 days. As with any Commission order, the broadcaster may petition for reconsideration, see, e.g., In the Matter of Liability of Sagittarius Broadcasting Corporation, 7 F.C.C. Rcd 6873 (Oct. 23, 1992), recon. denied, 8 F.C.C. Rcd 3600 (May 20, 1993), recon. denied, 8 F.C.C. Rcd 7975 (Nov. 10, 1993), but it may not obtain judicial review at that stage. Pleasant Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 564 F.2d 496 (D.C.Cir.1977). If the order becomes final and the broadcaster does not pay the forfeiture, the Commission issues progressively stiffer dunning letters, and threatens to refer and after 165 days does indeed refer the matter to the Department of Justice for commencement of [a] civil action ... to recover the forfeiture, in accordance with 47 U.S.C. Sec. 504(a). In defending that suit the broadcaster is entitled to a trial de novo on the question whether its broadcast was indecent. Id. 10 At the time the complaint in this case was filed, there were only three cases in which a broadcaster had held out long enough for the Commission to refer the matter to Justice, and the Department had actually filed only one case in district court. That case was settled after the court denied defense motions for partial judgment on the pleadings and for summary judgment. See United States v. Evergreen Media Corp., 832 F.Supp. 1179 and 1183 (N.D.Ill.1993). Thus, as far as we can discern, no broadcaster has yet gone to trial on the merits of an FCC indecency determination, as envisioned by the statute; every one has either paid the forfeiture imposed or is awaiting action by the Commission or the Department of Justice. 11 Although the issue has never been litigated, we assume that the general five-year period of limitations on forfeiture proceedings, see 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2462, would effectively prevent the Government from filing a civil action more than five years after the indecent material was aired. Once an action is timely filed, however, there is no law limiting the amount of time that may pass before the case is actually tried. In an extreme case, therefore, a broadcaster could wait as long as six or seven years from the time a program was aired until its first opportunity for judicial review of the Commission's decision that the material was indecent. 12 By all indications, a long wait promises to be the rule rather than the exception. The single forfeiture suit pending in district court as of March 1993 was filed two days before the five-year statute of limitations would have run, and was apparently close to disposition a little more than a year later. Evergreen Media, 832 F.Supp. 1179 and 1183. Based upon the shortest times reflected in the record, the earliest a broadcaster could hope to be brought into court is some two years after the offending broadcast. 13 This delay is unfortunate enough, but a number of other factors serve to exacerbate the effects of uncertainty about the outcome. First, a broadcaster claiming that a forfeiture is unconstitutional runs the risk of incurring an increased forfeiture for any subsequent indecency violation, see, e.g., Letter to Mr. Mel Karmazin, President, Sagittarius Broadcasting Corporation, 8 F.C.C. Rcd 2688, 2689 & n. 3 (December 18, 1992) (giving notice of intent to impose $600,000 forfeiture in light of apparent pattern of indecent broadcasting), and the possibility that the Commission will invoke the ultimate sanction, revocation of the broadcaster's license. See 47 U.S.C. Secs. 307-309. Second, individual Commissioners have taken an active public role in criticizing broadcasters for airing indecent material and have let it be known that sanctions for such activity are likely to increase. Furthermore, the Commission will not, as a matter of policy, issue a declaratory ruling on whether a proposed broadcast is indecent. Thus, the only official guidance about the Commission's standards of decency available to a broadcaster is what can be gleaned from published NALs and forfeiture orders. 14 Against this background, the parties to this case have stipulated that: 15 At a hearing, plaintiff broadcasters would testify that because of the delays of securing administrative and judicial determinations in indecency forfeiture proceedings, and uncertainties as to the permissible scope of FCC indecency regulation, they attempt to conform their conduct to the indecency standards articulated by the FCC and its Commissioners, whether or not they believe those standards are constitutional, especially because of the various sanctions to which broadcasters are potentially subject. 16 The FCC does not concede that this testimony would be credible, but in light of the district court's grant of summary judgment to the Commission we must accept the appellants' version of the facts.