Former Republican Chairman Alfred Sikes and Democratic Commissioner Ervin Duggan urge the Court to order the FCC to act on a long-pending application challenging the renewal of a Fox station license
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Former Republican Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Al Sikes, and former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin S. Duggan, both appointed by President George H.W. Bush, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. They argue that the Commission’s prolonged refusal to act on the Media and Democracy Project’s (MAD) Application for Review is part of a troubling pattern to exert substantial power through unreviewable staff-level actions at the Chairman’s unilateral direction.
Drawing on their firsthand experience leading the FCC, Sikes and Duggan argue that the Commission is no longer operating as Congress intended. Rather than allowing the full Commission to resolve significant matters subject to judicial review, they contend that the agency increasingly relies on staff-level actions and declines to issue final Commission decisions, thereby preventing the courts from reviewing important questions of law.
According to the filing:
Amici know from their own service on the Commission that this is not how the FCC is supposed to operate. Although Commission rules allow staff to “act on matters which are minor or routine or settled in nature,” MAD’s challenge to Fox’s license is none of those things. Yet the current Commission relies on staff-level action, and agency-level inaction, to do things “that are inconsistent with longstanding Commission precedent [and] that violate both the Communications Act and the First Amendment,” while “shield[ing] significant actions from judicial review.” Statement of Commissioner Gomez on Media Bureau Summary Dismissal of Pet’n to Repeal the News Distortion Policy (Jul. 1, 2026). Meanwhile, instead of acting as the five-member multi-partisan body Congress intended it to be, the Commission today operates with a bare quorum of three.
“The Federal Communications Commission was established by Congress to function as a bipartisan, multi-member commission whose decisions are subject to judicial review,” said Al Sikes, former FCC Chairman. “When the Commission refuses to act on an Application for Review involving an issue of this magnitude, it undermines both the agency’s own processes and the public’s confidence that important questions will receive the careful consideration they deserve.”
“The Commission’s character requirements exist to protect the public interest and preserve confidence in those entrusted with using the public airwaves,” said Ervin S. Duggan, former FCC Commissioner. “When serious questions are raised about whether a broadcast licensee has met those standards, the Commission cannot simply refuse to decide the matter. The public deserves an answer, and the courts deserve the opportunity to review that decision.”
The amicus brief supports MAD’s petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to require the FCC to act on an Application for Review that has been pending for 17 months. In their brief, Sikes and Duggan argue that the FCC’s inaction extends beyond a single case and reflects a broader pattern of shielding significant agency actions from judicial review by allowing consequential decisions to remain at the staff level indefinitely. A copy of the amicus brief is available here.
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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f699ab4f-37a6-493b-ac86-bf9685ff007a
