The FCC said it opposed a motion seeking an en banc rehearing of a 2017 decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit  that affirmed a 2016 FCC order that rejected a request by groups that petitioned the agency to mandate multilingual Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages (TR Daily, Oct. 17, 2017). “MMTC’s petition should be denied,” the FCC said in its brief in “Multicultural Media, Telecom, and Internet Council and the League of United Latin American Citizens v. FCC” (case 16-1222). “The panel correctly rejected an arbitrary and capricious challenge to an FCC decision to seek further information regarding state and local efforts to provide emergency alerts in languages other than English. Its decision raises no issues of exceptional importance, and does not conflict with any decision of this Court or the Supreme Court. Rehearing en banc is therefore unwarranted.”

Courtesy TRDaily