CBS, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1980)
- Docket
- 80-207
- Decided
- 1980-01-01
Summary
Question: 1. Did the Federal Communications Act create a new, individual right of broadcast access for the Carter-Mondale Presidential Committee, as the representatives of a candidate for federal office? 2. Did the act authorize the Federal Communications Commission to determine the beginning of the 1980 presidential campaign for purposes of the act and to assess the specific broadcast needs of the CMPC? 3. Did CBS have the right to decline to sell thirty minutes of broadcast time to the CMPC under the First Amendment? Conclusion: Yes, yes, and no. In a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice Warren Burger, the Court held that the Federal Communications Act created a new, individual right to broadcast access for candidates for federal office. He looked to the language of the Federal Communications Act’s requirement that a broadcaster provide candidates with reasonable access to the airwaves. Justice Burger noted that this section focused on an individual candidate seeking airtime for his/her candidacy, and that a different section of the act already imposed a general, public interest duty on broadcasters to provide time for political programming. Justice Burger looked to the legislative history of the act and the FCC’s past interpretations of the public interest right of access; both indicated that the right of access for federal candidates was a new, separate right. Turning to the FCC’s decision on the CMPC’s right of access to the airwaves, Chief Justice Burger held that the act authorized the FCC to determine whether a campaign has begun and to assess the specific needs of a candidate. He argued that the FCC did not arbitrarily set the starting date for a campaign; instead, it looked to objective evidence, taking into account the interests of candidates and the networks. Looking to the circumstances of the 1980 presidential election, Chief Justice Burger determined that the FCC did not abuse its discretion in holding that the networks failed to specifically grant the CMPC reasonable access to the airwaves. He noted that when the CMPC made its original request, ten candidates were formally seeking the Republican nomination and that various states had already started the delegate selection process, among other factors. Finally, Chief Justice Burger held that the First Amendment did not give CBS, Inc. the right to refuse to sell the CMPC thirty minutes of airtime. He argued that Congress intended for the act to protect the First Amendment rights of candidates and voters by securing a forum for candidates’ political speech. Justice Burger emphasized that while the act did not grant the CMPC a general constitutional right of access to broadcast media, the act created a limited right of reasonable access to broadcast media for candidates for federal office. Justice Byron White dissented, joined by Justices William Rehnquist and John Paul Stevens. Justice White looked to the history of federal regulation of broadcast media, inferring a clearly-defined legislative desire to preserve values of private journalism. He then turned to the legislative history of the act and determined that Congress merely codified the networks’ pre-existing duty to provide access to political broadcasts, attaching the threat of license revocation to give weight to that duty. He argued that the FCC arbitrarily determined that the start of a campaign was the beginning of the networks’ obligations under the act, and that the language of the act itself did not support FCC’s individualized-need approach. Further, this approach essentially destroyed the networks’ editorial discretion. Justice John Paul Stevens also filed a separate dissent. He argued that the FCC could not adequately evaluate the performance of the networks’ public interest duty by focusing on the needs or requests of particular candidates.