''Turner Broadcasting v. Federal Communications Commission'', 512 U.S. 622 (1994), is the first of two

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

cases dealing with the

must-carry In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system. North America Canada Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...

rules imposed on

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

. ''Turner Broadcasting v. Federal Communications Commission (II)'', 520 U.S. 180 (1997) was the second. ''Turner I'' established that cable television companies were indeed First Amendment speakers but didn't decide whether the federal regulation of their speech infringed upon their speech rights. In ''Turner II'' the court decided that the must-carry provisions were constitutional. Under the ''Miami Herald v. Tornillo'' case, it was unconstitutional to force a

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

to run a story the

editors Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

would not have included absent a

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

statute because it was

compelled speech Compelled speech is a transmission of expression required by law. A related legal concept is '' protected speech''. Just as freedom of speech protects free expression, in many cases it similarly protects an individual from being required to utter ...

which could not pass the strict scrutiny of a compelling state interest being achieved with the least restrictive means necessary to achieve the state interest. However, under the rule of '' Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC'' the High Court held that a federal agency could regulate broadcast stations (TV and radio) with far greater discretion. In order for federal agency regulation of broadcast media to pass constitutional muster, it need only serve an important state interest and need not narrowly tailor its regulation to the least restrictive means.

Concurrence (Stevens)

*Congress' policy judgment is entitled to substantial deference *Statute did not regulate the content of speech and therefore does not require the court to examine it with heightened scrutiny

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner Broadcasting V. Federal Communications Commission United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States Free Speech Clause case law Broadcast law 1994 in United States case law Federal Communications Commission litigation Turner Broadcasting System

Concurrence (Stevens)

See also

External links