ALJ Won't Broaden Arm & Rage Hearing to Consider 1st Amendment Questions

FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin denied a request from broadcaster Arm & Rage to enlarge the issues in its license proceeding (see 2206170063) to include questions on whether the revocation for character reasons of the license for WJBE (AM) Powell, Tennessee, would violate the First Amendment, said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. The character requirement, “has been upheld by the District of Columbia Circuit as a rational means to evaluate whether someone possesses the requisite character to hold an FCC license,” said the order. Arm & Rage hasn’t been treated in a discriminatory manner, and “it is the Commission’s usual practice to initiate a hearing proceeding when a licensee has been convicted of a felony,” the order said. Arm & Rage's Joseph Armstrong was convicted of making a false statement on a 2008 tax form.