47 U.S.C. § 556
Section 556 · Coordination of Federal, State, and local authority
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 46 court decisions — leading case Allarcom Pay Television, Ltd. v. General Instrument Corp. (1995)
Most recently applied in Spectrum Northeast, LLC v. Frey (January 2022)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to affect any authority of any State, political subdivision, or agency thereof, or franchising authority, regarding matters of public health, safety, and welfare, to the extent consistent with the express provisions of this subchapter.
Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to restrict a State from exercising jurisdiction with regard to cable services consistent with this subchapter.
Except as provided in section 557 of this title, any provision of law of any State, political subdivision, or agency thereof, or franchising authority, or any provision of any franchise granted by such authority, which is inconsistent with this chapter shall be deemed to be preempted and superseded.
For purposes of this section, the term “State” has the meaning given such term in section 153 of this title.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1996—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 104–104 substituted “section 153” for “section 153(v)”.
Effective Date
Section effective 60 days after Oct. 30, 1984, except where otherwise expressly provided, see section 9(a) of Pub. L. 98–549, set out as a note under section 521 of this title.