« I Want My Bleat! | Main | Nothing From You, Thank You »
May 06, 2005
Well Now, THAT'S a Smack Down If I Ever Saw One
From the Appeals Court decision on the 'Broadcast Flag' FCC ruling (page 4 of 34):
As a result, the FCC’s purported exercise of ancillary authority founders on the first condition. There is no statutory foundation for the broadcast flag rules, and consequently the rules are ancillary to nothing. Therefore, we hold that the Commission acted outside the scope of its delegated authority when it adopted the disputed broadcast flag regulations.
The rules are 'ancillary to nothing', as in 'we just made this shit up'. Ah jeez, that's great! As a non-'DaveJBarristerExtraordinaire' type, I found the first few pages of the decision easy to digest. The explanations in Circuit Judge Edwards' opinion were surprisingly accessible (Harumph! Who knew?) and that made for a pretty neat read. Some days ya just gotta love the law.
Posted by tree hugging sister at May 6, 2005 12:23 PM
Comments
And who knew that administrative law could be so much fun? Well, actually, I've thought so ever since I took that class in law school, though most law students consider it boring. The DC Circuit deals with an enormous amount of administartive agency appeals, so it's really the leading court on the subject and thus I'm not surprised the opinion was unusually clear.
Posted by: Dave J at May 6, 2005 03:12 PM
It did strike me as humorous that the most lucid explanation was from a court opinion. And we won't go into the if even I could understand it part. That's a given.
Posted by: tree hugging sister at May 6, 2005 03:22 PM