American Civil Liberties Union v. Federal Communications Commission’s Empirical Analysis
823 F.2d 1554 · 1987
Citation profile
50 federal appellate · 4 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 82 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2020 · most notably Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. (2009), Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1988)
50 federal appellate · 4 district · 1 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 1341 · 47 U.S.C. § 405 · 47 U.S.C. § 521 · 47 U.S.C. § 522 · 47 U.S.C. § 531 · 47 U.S.C. § 532 · 47 U.S.C. § 541
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Warth v. Seldin · Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of United States Inc v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Consumer Alert · Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner · Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 82 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]t seems highly unlikely that a responsible Congress would implicitly delegate to an agency the power to define the scope of its own power. When an agency’s assertion of power into new areas is under attack, therefore, courts should perform a close and searching analysis of congressional intent, remaining skeptical of the proposition that Congress did not speak to such a fundamental issue.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“In awarding a franchise or franchises, a franchising authority shall assure that access to cable service is not denied to any group of potential residential cable subscribers because of the income of the residents of the local area in which such group resides.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[t]he statute on its face prohibits discrimination on the basis of income; it manifestly does not require universal service. The agency ruling explicitly reaffirms the prohibition against redlining emphasized by the House report. The ACLU argues that the committee report evidences congressional intent that as a practical matter one can only deal with redlining by wiring “all areas of the franchise.” Otherwise “an endless variety of ‘facially neutral’ excuses [could] be used by cable operators to deny cable service to ‘unprofitable’ parts of a community.” Brief for ACLU at 25. We hold that this one sentence from the committee report cannot reasonably be read to so drastically limit the agency’s interpretation of the scope of its discretion in accomplishing the legislative goal. See, e.g., FCC v. WNCN Listeners Guild, 450 U.S. 582, 598 [ 101 S.Ct. 1266, 1276 , 67 L.Ed.2d 521 ] (1981) (“The legislative history of the Act ... provides insufficient basis for invalidating the agency’s construction of the Act.”); cf. supra II.A.1 at 36-39. Rather, we read the sentence to require exactly what it says: “wiring of all areas of the franchise” to prevent redlining. However, if no redlining is in evidence, it ■is likewise clear that wiring within the franchise area can be limited. This is precisely the statement made in the interpretative ruling. It wholly conforms to the statute and the explication in the House report. We therefore uphold the comment as fully consistent with clear congre”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.