Court Calls for Briefs in Latina Auction Challenge

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has given the FCC until noon Friday, March 4 to file a brief making its case for why the court should not stay either its decision denying Latina Broadcasters' incentive auction participation or stay the start of the auction.

In an order filed Feb. 26 but not released until Feb. 29, the court said that Latina will have until Monday, March 7, at 9 a.m. to reply.

Latina says the FCC discriminated against its Daytona Beach LPTV, reversing its original decision that the station was eligible, but allowing another, similarly situated, LPTV in L.A. to participate.

Latina's lawyer filed the stay request with the court on Friday after the FCC denied a similar request to stay the decision on its own authority or delay the March 29 auction start date until the D.C. court has heard the underlying challenge to the FCC's Feb. 12 decision.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.