Catholic University Law Review Volume 35 Issue 3 Spring 1986 Article 3 1986 Municipal Ripoff: The Unconstitutionality of Cable Television Franchise Fees and Access Support Payments David J. Saylor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview Recommended Citation David J. Saylor, Municipal Ripoff: The Unconstitutionality of Cable Television Franchise Fees and Access Support Payments, 35 Cath. U. L. Rev. 671 (1986). Available at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview/vol35/iss3/3 This Comments is brought to you for free and open access by CUA Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Catholic University Law Review by an authorized editor of CUA Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. COMMENTARY MUNICIPAL RIPOFF: THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF CABLE TELEVISION FRANCHISE FEES AND ACCESS SUPPORT PAYMENTS David J. Saylor * I. AN INTRODUCTORY PARADE OF HORRIBLES Imagine the outcry if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that henceforth all television and radio licenses would be auc- tioned off to the highest bidder for each license term. The political justifica- tion for such a development could be quite straightforward: Uncle Sam needs the money to help reduce the national debt and save government pro- grams from the clutches of Gramm-Rudman.' The purported legal ration- ale for this radical departure from current practice would be that the public, i.e., the federal government, owns the air space and is entitled to get fair market value for renting the airwaves to broadcasters. Or, consider this frightening scenario. Suppose the mayor and city coun- cil of Washington, D.C.