The FCC recently released a Notice of Apparent Liability (“NAL”) for a forfeiture of $ 8,000 that should be a cautionary tale for other broadcast licensees that conduct contests for listeners or viewers. This fine arose out of the station’s failure to conduct a contest in accordance with its announced terms, and specifically to make payment of a prize by the deadline which the station had established for itself. The FCC found that this failure was a violation of its … Read the rest
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The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.
A petition for a writ of habeas corpus allows someone who is incarcerated to challenge the legality of their custody and seek release from prison. The Supreme Court has “left open” whether a habeas petition can be used to challenge prison conditions, and in answering that question for themselves, the … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court doesn’t care all that much for method-of-execution challenges. It particularly disfavors Eighth Amendment litigation attacking familiar lethal injection protocols as “cruel and unusual” punishment. In the past 20 years, the court has announced substantive constitutional law, pleading requirements, and timeliness rules that make it harder to win such arguments. Nance v. Ward (to be argued on Monday) is about the procedural vehicle that prisoners must use to challenge execution methods. The case is important because Georgia’s … Read the rest