The National Religious Broadcasters association and the American Family Association announced they are suing the Federal Communications Commission over the reinstatement of a workforce data collection order that would mandate employer reporting of staff race and gender.
The NRB and AFA on Friday filed in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals a petition for review of FCC 24-18, which reinstates Form 395-B after 20 years of disuse.
The two organizations are seeking a review of the order on the grounds that it goes beyond the FCC’s “statutory authority, violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and the Free Speech Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and is an abuse of the FCC’s discretion.”
“Many of NRB’s members would be required to comply with this arbitrary and capricious order, and we are standing up on their behalf,” NRB President and CEO Troy Miller said in a statement. “Form 395-B was suspended for 20 years for good reason and revived on highly questionable grounds. Today we are challenging this unnecessary and unlawful action by filing our petition for review.”
Form 395-B, or the “Broadcast Station Annual Employment Report,” would force commercial and non-commercial television and radio broadcasters to report information on the race, ethnicity, and gender of each of their employees annually and include such reports in their online public inspection file.
According to the FCC’s latest order, the information provided on the form will not be redacted or kept confidential by the agency, which the NRB argues would pave the way for “third-party weaponization … to target specific broadcast stations.”
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Author: Dillon B
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