Justia Communications Law Opinion Summaries

U.S. South Communications, Inc. ("U.S.South"), an issuer of prepaid calling cards, appealed from the judgment entered against it and in favor of GCB Communications, Inc. and Lake Country Communications, Inc. (collectively "GCB"), a payphone service provider ("PSP"), where the district court held that U.S. South owed GCB dial-around compensation for disputed calls "regardless of whether the proper Flex-ANI digits were transmitted." After addressing threshold issues, the court determined that the issue was whether U.S. South was required to pay GCB for completed coinless payphone calls, dial-around calls, if U.S. South did not receive coding digits that would identify the calls as GCB payphone calls. The court concluded that GCB, through its local exchange carrier ("LEC"), must assure that the Flex-ANI was transmitted in the system. Therefore, because the district court did not make findings on this issue because it did not deem it relevant, the question of whether the Flex-ANI codes for the disputed calls were sent into the system by GCB and its LEC must be decided. Accordingly, the court vacated the judgment and remanded for further proceedings.

Defendant was convicted of five electronic communications offenses when she began an anonymous electronic campaign of harassment against a former romantic partner. Defendant challenged her convictions and sentence on numerous grounds. The court held that the felony convictions of Count 2 and Count 4 must be vacated and reduced to misdemeanors where both Counts created a merger problem which implicated double jeopardy principles and where the indictment failed to establish any crime in Count 4. The court also held that there was sufficient evidence to convict defendant on Count 1 and Count 6 where the record showed that she conspired unlawfully to access computers and electronic storage facilities containing unopened e-mails for the purpose of accessing other computers and harassing, annoying, and harming the victim and his family and where the illegal access to voicemail facilitated the harassing telephone calls by supplying the ammunition that made the calls harassing and threatening. The court rejected defendant's claim that her Sixth Amendment rights were violated where the district court granted her request to represent herself. The court further rejected defendant's remaining sentencing arguments and affirmed the judgment of the district court. Finally, in light of Count 2 and Count 4, the court vacated defendant's sentence and remanded for resentencing.

The former mayor of Seven Hills, Ohio sued for defamation, based on publication of a statement that he "routinely tries to pull off stunts like limiting residentsâ feedback at meetings and barring government employees from running for officeâ and an article that, he claimed, falsely implied that he sought personal information about constituents, including young women, for illicit purposes. The court denied an extension, struck the complaint for failure to prosecute, and entered summary judgment in favor of the defendants. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, holding that the articles constituted protected opinion, as a matter of law. The article concerning the mayor's letter to young residents does not expressly state or clearly imply illicit motive. The statement about limiting feedback appears to be a statement of objective, verifiable fact, but in the context of an article that contains statements like âpolitical IQ of Quiznosâ lettuce,â it would be unreasonable to read it as impartial reporting. The court did not abuse its discretion in imposing a sanction for failure to prosecute.

The city amended its code to prohibit sexually-oriented businesses in downtown and planned development districts and later published notice of intent to prohibit such uses in a development authority district and imposed a temporary ban on issuance of new licenses. While the ban was in place, the owner sought permission to operate a topless bar in the area. The ordinance requires the clerk to act within 20 days; the clerk rejected the application after 24 days. The amendment prohibiting the use was enacted about two weeks later. The district court rejected the owner's civil rights claims (42 U.S.C. 1983) on summary judgment. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. The city's evidence showed that the ordinance was narrowly tailored to deal with secondary effects, blight and deterioration of property values, and leaves open reasonable opportunity to operate an adult business. Even if only 27 sites are available, rather than 39 as the district court concluded, the number is adequate in a city that had only two applications in five years. The 24-day decision period did not amount to an unconstitutional prior restraint; prompt judicial review was available.

Appellant, a shareholder and former chief executive officer of Tama Broadcasting, Inc. ("Tama"), filed an application for review with the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") challenging the FCC Media Bureau's approval of the assignment applications made by Tama's receiver after a judicial foreclosure action was brought against Tama. At issue was whether appellant had standing under Article III to file an application for review. The court held that appellant lacked standing where his injuries could not be traced to the FCC's approval of the license assignments and where the alleged injuries were caused by Tama's default on its loan payments, the foreclosure action against Tama, and the New York court's appointment of a receiver.