Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commn.

The FCC's fairness doctrine required broadcasters to cover public issues with balanced representation of opposing views and to offer reply time to individuals personally attacked in that coverage; Red Lion Broadcasting Co. (plaintiff) refused to grant reply time to an author attacked on one of its radio programs, and the court of appeals upheld the FCC's finding that Red Lion violated the doctrine. Separately, RTNDA (also a plaintiff in the consolidated matter) challenged newer, more specific FCC rules implementing the personal-attack and political-editorializing aspects of the fairness doctrine, and a different court of appeals panel found those specific rules unconstitutional; the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve both cases.