Court Opinion

ID: 9465574
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:50:07.593436+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:15.135188
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
Petitioners challenge the constitutionality of Section 399(b) and the rules promulgated *1124thereunder by the FCC on both First Amendment and Equal Protection grounds. Judge Wright’s opinion makes a persuasive case that § 399(b) places substantial burdens on noncommercial broadcasters and presents the risk of direct governmental interference in programming content in violation of the First Amendment. Indeed, this argument is a strong one and might well prevail. But however strong that challenge is, it is even clearer that § 399(b) violates the Equal Protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment, and it is thus unnecessary to decide whether the chill imposed by this statute is sufficient to require its invalidation on First Amendment grounds alone. Because § 399(b) not only “touches upon” fundamental First Amendment freedoms, but does so by classifications formulated explicitly in terms of the content of speech, we must examine the challenged regulation to insure that it is precisely tailored to serve legitímate governmental interests. “Of course, the equal protection claim in this case is closely intertwined with First Amendment interests . . . . As in all equal protection cases, however, the crucial question is whether there is an appropriate governmental interest suitably furthered by the differential treatment.” Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 95, 92 S.Ct. 2286, 2289, 33 L.Ed.2d 212 (1972). As the opinions of Judge Wright and Judge Robinson convincingly establish, when § 399(b) is measured against its intended objectives, it fails even to satisfy the demands of limited Equal Protection scrutiny. Hence, we must conclude that the statute is a constitutionally impermissible means of furthering any or all of its ostensible goals.
Accordingly, I concur in the judgment of the court and join in Parts I and IV of Judge Wright’s opinion and in the opinions of Judge Wright and Judge Robinson to the extent that they reflect these views.