Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commn.

Federal statutory provisions required cable television systems to carry local broadcast stations on a portion of their channels, and Turner Broadcasting (plaintiff) sued the FCC (defendant), arguing the rules impermissibly restricted cable operators' and programmers' First Amendment speech rights by reducing the channels operators controlled and making it harder for other programmers to compete for the remaining carriage slots; the district court upheld the regulations, and Turner appealed to the Supreme Court.