A federal appeals court has invalidated the FCC’s attempt to require broadcasters to file annual reports disclosing the race, ethnicity, and gender of their employees.
These reports – known as FCC Form 395-B (Broadcast Station Annual Employment Report) – were last filed by broadcasters in 2001. That year, another federal court rejected parts of the FCC’s EEO rules, causing the FCC to suspend filing of the reports indefinitely. In 2024, the FCC adopted an Order reinstating the requirement for broadcasters to file Form 395-B, and said it would post broadcasters’ employment demographic data online on a station-specific basis. However, the FCC deferred the effective date of the requirement.
Several entities, including the Texas Association of Broadcasters and the National Religious Broadcasters, appealed the FCC’s decision to reinstate the Form 395-B filing requirement. In its decision, a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said the FCC had overstepped its statutory authority. The Court rejected the FCC’s claim that its general public-interest authority allowed it to collect Form 395-B data. The court said that while the FCC has broad authority to act in the public interest, that authority does not extend to areas in which the FCC has not been authorized by Congress to act. The Court found that the FCC was not authorized to require broadcasters to file employment demographics.
It is unlikely the FCC will appeal the decision. As an FCC commissioner, current Chairman Brendan Carr was highly critical of the FCC’s plan to publish broadcasters’ Form 395-B demographic data.
