Careful readers will have noticed that Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented in a couple of recent cases of interest to radio, without explanation.
Radio World reached out to the FCC regarding his two recent dissents. A spokesperson pointed to a statement Simington released in August, where he said that due to the new controlling Supreme Court precedent established by Cunningham Broadcast Corporation, et al., as of Aug. 14, the commission’s previous authority to assess forfeitures is what he deemed “unclear.”

Simington dissented in the case of four proposed fines related to pirate radio and a fine ruling involving ham operator Jason Frawley’s interference with first responders.
“Until the commission formally determines the bounds of its enforcement authority under this new precedent, I am obligated to dissent from any decision purporting to impose a monetary forfeiture,” Simington wrote in August.
(Read Commissioner Simington’s statement of dissent from August.)
The case Simington pointed to involved a forfeiture order against 19 groups covering 113 TV stations, as our sister publication TVTech reported. The fines, totaling approximately $3.3 million, included a fine of approximately $2.6 million against Sinclair Broadcasting for violations of rules regarding children’s programming.
Multiple airings of a commercial for a Hot Wheels toy during a Hot Wheels-themed television show fit the FCC’s definition of a program-length commercial.
Both Republican-appointed commissioners, Simington and Brendan Carr, dissented from the forfeiture order.
“Today’s $2.652 million penalty is not how any of this should work under the law,” Carr said in his dissent of the August forfeiture.
Simington called on the commission to open a notice of inquiry to determine the constitutional bounds of its enforcement authority in his August statement.