Opinion ID: 395227
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The First Injunction

Text: 2 In 1964, the City Council of Boulder granted a nonexclusive, revocable permit to a predecessor of CCC, authorizing but not requiring the company to provide cable broadcasting services to all of Boulder. The permit was issued in the form of an ordinance allowing use of the public ways to string cable for a period of twenty years, with the reservation that the City Council could revoke the permit at its pleasure at any time. In 1966, the permit was assigned to CCC. 3 Under the permit, CCC chose for roughly 15 years to provide cable television service only to the University Hill area of Boulder, an area comprised of approximately 20% of Boulder's residential units and blocked off from normal reception of Denver television stations. In 1979, CCC informed the City of its plans to expand the area it served and the programming it carried. Shortly thereafter, the City received a request from Boulder Communications Company (BCC) for a cable television permit. BCC indicated that regardless of the action the City took in regard to CCC, it planned to begin building a new system as soon as possible after it received a permit. 4 In response to these developments, the City undertook a study of cable broadcasting technology and concluded that cable systems are natural monopolies. Consequently, the City became concerned that CCC, because of its headstart, would always be the only cable operator in Boulder if allowed to expand, even though it might not be the best operator Boulder could otherwise obtain. The City decided to place a moratorium on CCC's expansion in order to provide other companies the opportunity to make bids to service the remaining parts of Boulder before CCC could become so entrenched that new entry would be impracticable. On December 18, 1979, the City Council enacted a moratorium to restrict CCC from expanding its area of service for 90 days. 5 On January 15, 1980, CCC filed a complaint against the City in federal district court. The complaint listed several grounds for relief including allegations that the City's actions violated section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, and the First Amendment. CCC continued to string cable. When the City tore down some of the new cable, CCC sought a preliminary injunction from the district court to enjoin enforcement of the moratorium. 6 In its March 17, 1980 decision, the district court recognized that the case presented significant First Amendment questions, but found them not now ripe for decision. Boulder I, 485 F.Supp. at 1040. It focused instead on the Sherman Act claim and granted a preliminary injunction against the City on that basis. The City appealed. 7 This court reversed in a May 28, 1980 decision. We concluded that the trial court had erred as a matter of law in grounding a preliminary injunction on the Sherman Act claim. See Boulder I, 630 F.2d 704, 708 (10th Cir. 1980). Because authorization to use public ways for provision of cable service is a matter of local governmental concern, 3 we held the home-rule City of Boulder to be immune from antitrust liability under the state action doctrine of Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341, 63 S.Ct. 307, 87 L.Ed. 315 (1943). We noted that the district court had expressed no other basis for the restraining order than the antitrust factor. Boulder I, 630 F.2d at 708.