Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium, Inc. v. FCC

Denver Area Ed. Telecommunications Consortium, Inc. v. FCC
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 21, 1996 Decided June 28, 1996
Full case name	Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium v. Federal Communications Commission
Docket no.	95-124
Citations	518 U.S. 727 (more) 116 S.Ct. 2374, 135 L.Ed.2d 888
Case history
Prior	56 F. 3d 105 (CADC 1995)
Holding
Sections 10(b) and 10(c) of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, but section 10(a) of that act is constitutional.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Breyer (Part III), joined by Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg
Plurality	Breyer (Parts I, II, and V), joined by Stevens, O'Connor, Souter
Plurality	Breyer (Parts IV and VI), joined by Stevens, Souter
Concurrence	Stevens
Concurrence	Souter
Concur/dissent	O'Connor
Concur/dissent	Kennedy, joined by Ginsburg
Concur/dissent	Thomas, joined by Rehnquist, Scalia

Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium v. Federal Communications Commission, 518 U.S. 727 (1996), was a 1996 United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992. The Court held that provisions 10(b) and 10(c) of this Act violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Provision 10(b) required operators of leased access television stations to segregate "patently offensive" programming on a separate channel, to block access to that channel from viewers, and to unblock it in response to a viewer's written request. Provision 10(c) allowed the operators of public access channels to prohibit the broadcasting of programming that the operator "reasonably believes describes or depicts sexual or excretory activities or organs in a patently offensive manner". The Court also upheld section 10(a) of the same Act, which granted a similar ability as 10(c) to leased access channels rather than public access channels, as consistent with the First Amendment.^[1]

• Text of Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium v. Federal Communications Commission is available from: Cornell Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)