Court Sets Briefing Schedule for Latina Spectrum Auction Challenge

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has wasted no time in setting the briefing schedule for Latina Broadcasters of Daytona Beach's challenge to the FCC's spectrum auction.

The court has granted Latina a stay of the FCC decision not to let the low power station, Azteca America affiliate WDYB, into the auction and the FCC has agreed to provisionally include it.

In granting the stay motion the court said it would expedite the underlying case and was as good as its word, at least about expediting the announcement of the briefing schedule.

The case actually won't be argued before September, the court has said.

Latina's brief will be due June 15, followed by respondent briefs July 7, intervenor briefs July 22 and reply briefs Aug. 8.

As the court points out, oral argument usually isn't scheduled until at least 45 days after the last brief, so sometime in late September at the earliest.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.