When Rick Santelli, a cable news business commentator, attacked the mortgage refinancing provisions of the law on a February 19 broadcast from Chicago, he mentioned the idea of a Chicago
Trang 1they are permitted to stop paying their share of school tax
Uniformity
The principle of uniformity of taxation bears a close relation to the concept of equality because similar items are taxed equally only if the mode
of assessment is the same or uniform
A tax that is levied upon property must be
in proportion or according to its value, ordi-narily determined as its fair cash orFAIR MARKET VALUE This requirement protects equality and
uniformity of taxation by preventing ARBITRARY
or inconsistent methods of determining how much tax is due This requirement applies only
to property taxes, not to excise taxes
FURTHER READINGS Reid, John Phillip, 2003 Constitutional History of the American Revolution: The Authority to Tax Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
CROSS REFERENCES Customs Duties; Estate and Gift Taxes; Internal Revenue Service; Tax Rate; Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Tea Party Movement
O
B
ne of the catalysts for the American
Revolu-tion was the imposiRevolu-tion of British taxes on the
American colonists The battle cry of“No Taxation
without Representation” struck a nerve The Boston
Tea Party of 1773, where colonists destroyed three
shiploads of taxed tea that was to be returned to
Great Britain, has been adopted by succeeding
generations of Americans who have opposed
government taxation without representation One
example is the tea party movement, which began in
2009
The tea party movement can be traced to the
2008 presidential campaign of congressman Ron Paul
(R-Tex.), whose conservative Republican philosophy
led him to call for the extinction of the Federal Reserve
system and for a drastic shrinking of the federal
government Though Paul had no chance of winning
the Republican nomination, his followers remain
active and vocal in their criticism of the political
system In addition, the election of Barack Obama as
president coincided with the bailout of the U.S
banking system following its dramatic near-collapse
in September 2008 Though many Republicans voted
for the bailout, most conservatives were outraged
After President Obama proposed, and Congress
enacted, a massive economic stimulus plan in
February 2009, conservative radio commentators such
as Rush Limbaugh fanned the flames of discontent
By mid-February small protests against the
stimulus package had taken place in Denver and
Washington When Rick Santelli, a cable news
business commentator, attacked the mortgage
refinancing provisions of the law on a February 19
broadcast from Chicago, he mentioned the idea of a Chicago“Tea Party.” Within hours the idea of a tea party movement was born, and on February 27 protests were held in 40 cities around the United States
The tea party movement continued to grow On April 15 anti-tax demonstrations were held in approximately 350 cities Turnouts varied and critics questioned how many people actually participated
Nevertheless, liberal and conservative analysts seemed to agree that more than 300,000 people marched that day When a box of tea bags was thrown over the White House fence, the Secret Service moved protesters to a different location On September 12, more tea party protests took place, including a large gathering at the U.S Capitol building
The tea party movement is a contemporary example of American populism Individuals and small business owners objected to government bailouts of large banks, the U.S auto industry, and irresponsible homeowners who faced foreclosure because they failed to live within their means Some protesters attacked former President George W
Bush and the Republican majorities in Congress during his time in office for profligate spending, but most reserved their anger for President Obama and congressional Democrats
By the end of 2009, it was unclear where the tea party movement was headed Critics contended that
it was an “astroturf” movement that had been manufactured by conservative lobbyists, but others believed it was a genuine movement fueled by middle-class discontent
488 TAXATION
Trang 2TAXING COSTS
The designation given to the process of
determin-ing and chargdetermin-ing to the losdetermin-ing party in a legal
action the expenses involved in initiating or
defending the action, to which the successful side
is lawfully entitled
CROSS REFERENCE
Costs.
TAXPAYER BILL OF RIGHTS
A federal or state law that gives taxpayers
procedural and substantive protection when
dealing with a revenue department concerning a
tax-collection dispute
Perceived abuses by the federal INTERNAL
REVENUE SERVICE (IRS) during tax audits led to
the enactment of the Omnibus Taxpayer Bill of
Rights in 1988, Pub L No 100-647, 102 Stat
3342 A second set of provisions was enacted in
1996 in the Taxpayer BILL OF RIGHTS II, Pub L
No 104-168, 110 Stat 1452 to give taxpayers
increased leverage in dealings with the IRS
Congress followed those enactments by passing
the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and
Reform Act of 1998 (also known as the
Taxpayer Bill of Rights III), Pub L No
105-206, 112 Stat 685 The original 1988 act also
spurred many states to enact similar taxpayer
bills of rights
The rights given to taxpayers under these
federal acts do not reduce the chance of being
audited or diminish IRS’s authority to penalize
taxpayers for inaccuracies or cheating on their
returns Nevertheless, the provisions correct
many of the perceived abuses in IRS auditing
and collection procedures The bill of rights
seeks to relieve taxpayers from the unfettered
discretion of IRS agents Congress stated that
the aim of the 1988 act was“to inject reason and
protection for individual rights into the tax
collection process.”
The bill of rights requires the IRS to explain
the audit and collection process to the taxpayer
before any initial audit or collection interviews
and to include on all tax notices a description
of the basis for taxes, interest, or penalties
due The bill also requires the IRS to inform
taxpayers of their rights, including the right to
be represented by an attorney or tax accountant,
whenever an audit notice is sent The bill allows
the taxpayer to make an audio recording of
the interview with the IRS agent, provided prior
notice is given An actual audit interview can be stopped,WITHOUT PREJUDICE, so that the taxpayer can consult with an attorney or accountant
Another key provision prohibits the IRS from imposing quotas or goals on agents with respect
to the number of returns they audit and the amount of taxes and penalties collected
The 1988 act created the Office of Taxpayer Ombudsman, which served as the primary advocate for taxpayers within the IRS The
1996 act shifted this role to the newly established Office of the Taxpayer Advocate
This office helps taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS, identifies areas in which taxpayers have problems in dealings with the IRS, proposes changes in the administrative practices
of the IRS, and suggests potential legislative changes that may reduce these problems To ensure independence from the IRS, the Tax-payer Advocate reports directly to Congress twice a year
The Taxpayer Advocate also has broad authority to issue Taxpayer Assistance Orders
These orders can release property or require the IRS to cease any action, or refrain from taking any action, that will cause significant hardship
as a result of the administration of the internal revenue laws
Under the bill of rights, before the IRS can put aLIENon or seize taxpayer property, it must give the taxpayer thirty days’ notice instead of the previous ten days’ notice Taxpayers are permitted to sue the IRS for damages suffered as
a result of tax-collection or property-seizure actions or refusals to release a lien; they can be awarded court costs and legal and administra-tive fees if they win an administraadministra-tive or court action against the IRS
Under the bill of rights, the IRS is autho-rized to make installment agreements with taxpayers to alleviate the burden on a taxpayer who would experience financial hardship if forced to make a lump-sum payment The IRS must give 30 days’ notice before altering, modifying, or terminating a previously agreed-upon installment agreement, unless the change
is caused by a determination that the collection
of tax is in jeopardy
Another provision of the law states that if the IRS believes additional taxes are owed, the agency must send the taxpayer a written notice that explains and identifies all amounts due
The IRS must also describe the procedures
TAXPAYER BILL OF RIGHTS 489
Trang 3that it will use to collect any amounts due.
Previously, the IRS generally explained the basis for a tax deficiency but was not required to explain penalties or how they would be collected Instead, the IRS simply sued the taxpayer
The bill of rights gives the IRS authority to abate interest for delays or unreasonable errors caused by nondiscretionary procedural acts of the IRS or by IRS managerial acts such as loss
of records by the IRS or transfers, extended illnesses, leave, or professional training of IRS personnel
The 1998 bill of rights resulted from a series
of hearings held before Congress in 1996 and
1997 The 1998 act added several provisions related to tax-collection activities of the IRS, including a provision that requires the IRS to follow certain guidelines established in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C.A
§ 1692 et seq
FURTHER READINGS Hudson, David M., and Stephen A Lind 2007 Federal Income Taxation 10th ed St Paul, Minn.: Thomson/
West.
Mumford, Ann 1997 “The New American Bill of Rights.”
British Tax Review (November-December).
Petersen, Scott 1997 “The Rights of Third-Party Taxpayers under the Taxpayers ’ Bill of Rights.” Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law 1 (winter).
U.S Department of the Treasury 1997 Taxpayer Bill of Rights 3 and Tax Simplification Proposals Chicago:
CCH Incorporated.
CROSS REFERENCES Income Tax; Taxation.
TAXPAYER’S SUIT
An action brought by an individual whose income
is subjected to charges imposed by the state or federal government, for the benefit of that individual and others in order to prevent the diversion of public funds in violation of a public right
Because every taxpayer of a town has an interest in the preservation of an orderly government, many state laws grant individual taxpayers the right to sue town officers, boards,
or commissions to recover money that has been wrongfully spent In order to bring such suit, however, several criteria must be met The plaintiffs must have standing as taxpayers of the governmental unit in question They must also show that the expenditure being challenged is
unlawful and not in the public’s economic interest For example, in 1968 several citizens filed suit against Wilbur Cohen, who was then the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare They argued that the use of federal funds for religious schools violated the Establishment Clause of the FIRST AMENDMENT At the district court level, plaintiffs were found not to have standing, but on appeal to the U.S Supreme Court, Chief JusticeEARL WARRENfound in favor
of them and established a two-pronged test: to
BRING SUIT, PLAINTIFFtaxpayers must “allege the unconstitutionality only of exercises of congres-sional power under the taxing and spending clause of Art I, § 8, of the Constitution” and also that “the challenged enactment exceeds specific constitutional limitations upon the exercise of the taxing and spending power and not simply that the enactment is generally beyond the powers delegated to Congress by Art I, § 8” (Flast v Cohen, 392 U.S 83 [1968])
vTAYLOR, ZACHARY Zachary Taylor served as the twelfth president
of the United States from 1849 until his death in
1850 A famous military general, Taylor was an apolitical leader who accomplished little during his sixteen months in office He does have the distinction of being one of the two military heroes of the Mexican War, and the last Whig president
Taylor was born on November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia, the son of a lieutenant colonel who had been on George Washington’s Revolutionary War staff The family moved to Louisville, Ky., in 1785, where Zachary’s father became a collector of customs and an influential man Poorly educated by private tutoring, young Taylor was intended for an agricultural life on the family plantation, but the death of
an elder brother allowed him to enter the Army
in 1808
Taylor was commissioned as a first lieuten-ant in the inflieuten-antry that same year by President
THOMAS JEFFERSON and was assigned to Gen James Wilkinson’s command at New Orleans
He quickly emerged as a military hero during the WAR OF 1812 while serving under General
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON Taylor also served in the Black Hawk War (1832) and the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) On May 15, 1838, Taylor was named commanding general of all U.S forces in Florida
490 TAXPAYER’S SUIT
Trang 4In 1845, soon after theANNEXATIONof Texas,
President JAMES K POLK ordered Taylor and an
army of four thousand men to the Rio Grande
Border hostilities with Mexico over the
bound-ary between the two countries escalated into full
battles in May of 1845 Taylor’s troops defeated
an invading Mexican army at the Battles of Palo
Alto and Resaca de la Palma That same month,
the United States declared war on Mexico
Taylor and his army invaded Mexico and
advanced to Monterrey, capturing the city in
late September His military career was put in
doubt, however, when a letter became public
in which Taylor criticized President Polk and
his secretary of war, William L Marcy An angry
Polk could not relieve the popular war hero of
his command, but he stripped Taylor of his
best troops and ordered him to adopt a
defen-sive posture Taylor, who was nicknamed “Old
Rough and Ready,” disobeyed Polk’s orders and
defeated a Mexican army that outnumbered
his troops by four to one at the Battle of Buena
Vista in February 1847 This stunning victory
guaranteed Taylor the status of national hero
The WHIG PARTY nominated Taylor as its
presidential candidate in 1848, even though
Taylor had no interest in politics (he had never
voted in an election) and was a slave owner
Taylor defeated the Democratic candidate,
Lewis Cass, in the November general election
Taylor’s brief service as president was
unremarkable Having no political background,
Taylor was unprepared for the give-and-take of
Washington politics The biggest issue facing
him was statehood for California and New
Mexico, which had been acquired from Mexico
as a result of the war Although he owned slaves,
Taylor was opposed to the expansion ofSLAVERY
into the new territories, a position that alienated Southern Whigs and Democrats in Congress
When California voted to prohibit slavery, the South opposed its admission to the Union
Attempts by Senator HENRY CLAY of Kentucky
to negotiate a compromise were rebuffed by Taylor
As this political conflict unfolded in the summer of 1850, Taylor contracted cholera He died on July 9, 1850, in Washington, D.C
Taylor was succeeded by Vice President
MILLARD FILLMORE, who quickly agreed to resolve the Mexican territories issue with the COMPRO-MISE OF1850 This act admitted California into the Union as a free state, gave the territories of Utah and New Mexico the right to determine the slavery issue for themselves at the time of
Zachary Taylor 1784–1850
1775 1800 1825 1850
◆
❖
1775–83
American Revolution
1784 Born,
Orange County, Va
◆
1808 Enlisted
in the U.S Army
1812–14 War of 1812
1832 Distinguished himself during Black Hawk War
◆
1837 Promoted to brigadier general after his victory at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee
◆
1845 Texas admitted as 28th state
of the Union
1846–48 Mexican War
1850 Died, Washington, D.C.
1849–50 Served as U.S president
1835–42 Second Seminole War in Florida
◆
1847 Defeated Mexican army at the Battle of Buena Vista
❖
Zachary Taylor.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
LET US INVOKE A CONTINUANCE OF THE SAME PROTECTING CARE WHICH HAS LED
US FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS TO THE EMINENCE WE THIS DAY OCCUPY
WHICH SHALL ACKNOWLEDGE NO LIMITS BUT THOSE
OF OUR OWN WIDE-SPREAD
REPUBLIC
—Z ACHARY T AYLOR
TAYLOR, ZACHARY 491
Trang 5their admission to the Union, outlawed the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and gave the federal government the right to return fugitive slaves in the FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT (9 Stat 462)
FURTHER READINGS Hamilton, Holman 1978 The Three Kentucky Presidents—
Lincoln, Taylor, Davis Lexington: Univ Press of Kentucky.
TEA PARTY MOVEMENT SeeTAXATION
TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL The presidential administration of WARREN G
HARDING, from 1921 to 1923, was characterized
by scandal and corruption, the most controver-sial of which was the Teapot Dome oil scandal
Conservation was a popular cause through-out the first quarter of the twentieth century and was encouraged by various presidents As a result, several oil reserves for the exclusive use
of the U.S Navy were established in Wyoming and California The oil was kept in storage places called domes, one of which, located near Casper, Wyoming, was christened Teapot Dome due to a rock formation in the area that resembled a teapot
Although many politicians favored the establishment of the oil reserves, others believed they were superfluous One opponent of the
oil policy was Senator Albert B Fall of New Mexico, who sought to make the reserves acc-essible to private industry
In 1921 Senator Fall was selected as Secretary of the Interior in the Harding cabinet Authority over the oil fields was transferred from the Department of the Navy to the
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, with the consent of Edwin Denby, Secretary of the Navy Fall was in a position to lease the oil reserves, without public bidding, to private parties In 1922 Harry F Sinclair, president of the Mammoth Oil Com-pany, received rights to Teapot Dome, and Edward L Doheny, a friend of Fall and pro-minent in the Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company, leased the Elk Hills fields
in California Fall received approximately
$400,000 in exchange for his favoritism Senator Thomas J Walsh of Montana initiated a Senate investigation of the oil reserve lands at the recommendation of SenatorROBERT
M.LAFOLLETTE of Wisconsin Eventually the U.S Supreme Court declared the leases inoperative, and the oil fields at Teapot Dome and Elk Hills were returned to the U.S government Sinclair served nine months in prison for CONTEMPT of court, but both he and Doheny were found not guilty ofBRIBERY Fall, who had left the cabinet in
1923, was found guilty in 1929 of accepting bribes; his punishment was one year in prison and a fine of $100,000 President Harding died
in office in 1923, never aware of the notoriety of his administration
FURTHER READINGS Stratton, David H 1998 Tempest over Teapot Dome: The Story of Albert B Fall Norman: Univ of Oklahoma Press.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS The transmission of words, sounds, images, or data in the form of electronic or electromagnetic signals or impulses
From the introduction of the telegraph in the United States in the 1840s to the present-day Internet computer network, telecommu-nication has been a central part of American culture and society Telephones, radios, broad-cast television, CABLE TELEVISION, satellite televi-sion, fax machines, cellular telephones, and computer networks have become integral parts
of everyday life As telecommunication technol-ogy advanced, the telecommunications industry
Albert B Fall (left),
U.S secretary of the
interior, and Harry F.
Sinclair, president of
the Mammoth Oil
Company, received
prison terms for their
roles in the Teapot
Dome scandal, with
Fall convicted of
accepting bribes and
Sinclair for contempt
of court.
BETTMANN/CORBIS.
492 TEA PARTY MOVEMENT
Trang 6became more complicated As a result, federal
and state governments attempted to regulate the
pricing of telecommunication systems and the
content of transmitted material The
Telecom-munications Act of 1996 (Pub L No 104-104)
deregulated much of the telecommunication
industry allowing competition in markets
previously reserved for government-regulated
monopolies
Telegraph
The first telegraph system in the United States
was completed in 1844 Originally used as a way
of managing railroad traffic, the telegraph soon
became an essential means of transmitting news
around the United States The Associated Press
was formed in 1848 to pool telegraph expenses;
other wire services soon followed
Many telegraph companies were formed in
the early years of the business, but by 1856
Western Union Telegraph Company had
be-come the first dominant national telegraph
system In 1861 it completed the first
transcon-tinental line, connecting San Francisco first to
the Midwest and then on to the East Coast The
International Telegraph Union was formed in
1865 to establish standards for use in
interna-tional communication as worldwide interest
increased in applications of the telegraph In
1866 the first transatlantic cables were
com-pleted
The telegraph era came to an end after
WORLD WAR II, with the advent of high-speed
transmission technologies that did not use
telegraph and telephone wires By 1988 Western
Union was reorganized to handle money
transfers and related services
Telephone Systems
The invention of the telephone in the late
nineteenth century led to the creation of the
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
(AT&T) The company owned virtually all
telephones, equipment, and long-distance and
local wires for personal and business service in
the national telephone system Smaller
compa-nies seeking a part of the long-distance
tele-phone market challenged AT&T’s monopoly
in the 1970s
In 1982 the U.S.JUSTICE DEPARTMENT allowed
AT&T to settle a lawsuit alleging antitrust
violations because of its monopolistic holdings
AT&T agreed to divest itself of its local
operating companies by January 1, 1984, while retaining control of its long-distance, research, and manufacturing activities Seven regional telephone companies (known as the Baby Bells) were given responsibility for local telephone service Other companies now compete with AT&T to provide long-distance service to telephone customers
In an effort to spur competition the Tele-communications Act of 1996 allowed the seven regional phone companies to compete in the long-distance telephone market The act also permitted AT&T and other long-distance car-riers, as well as cable companies, to sell local telephone service
Local telephone rates are regulated by state commissions, which also work to see that the regional telephone companies provide good maintenance and services The use of a tele-phone for an unlawful purpose is a crime under state and federal laws, as is the WIRETAPPING of telephone conversations
In 2002 the U.S.SUPREME COURT issued two rulings that had a significant impact on large regional telephone companies The first was Verizon Communications v FCC 535 U.S 467,
122 S.Ct 1646, 152 L Ed 2d 701, which had beginnings in the 1990s Under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, multiple local ex-change carriers (LECs) are allowed to compete
in the same market Incumbent LECs, or ILECs, are those that already have a presence in a market Competing LECs (CLECs) are provi-ders that want to enter an ILEC’s market The ILECs are required to share their telecommu-nications network with the CLECs for a GOOD FAITH negotiated price (47 U.S.C.A Secs 251–
52) They must form a written agreement; if there are points of contention in the agreement, they must be submitted for bindingARBITRATION
to the state utility commission That decision may be appealed to a federal district court if either side believes that it constitutes a violation
of the act
Several LECs and state utility commissions challenged the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMIS-SION (FCC), the federal agency charged with regulating communications, over the way it mandated pricing formulas The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the plaintiffs in Iowa Utilities Board v FCC, 120 F.3d 753 (8th Cir 1997) The Supreme Court reversed the Eighth Circuit’s decision, concluding that the
TELECOMMUNICATIONS 493
Trang 7FCC was within its rights to establish a pricing methodology The court ordered the appellate court to determine whether that methodology met the requirements of the 1996 act (AT&T Corp v Iowa Utilities Board, 525 U.S 366, 119
S Ct 721, 142 L Ed 2d 835 (1999) In Iowa Utilities Board v FCC, 219 F.3d 744 (8th Cir
2000), the appellate court ruled that the FCC pricing rules were invalid
On appeal, the Supreme Court again reversed the Eighth Circuit, observing that the FCC’s methodology had been designed so that smaller companies could enter and compete more easily in local phone markets The ILECs preferred a methodology that would have in-creased the amount they were allowed to charge the CLECs The increase would have amounted
to billions of dollars in charges Moreover, the court held that the FCC has the authority to force ILECs to combine leased elements upon request by a CLEC These include local, long-distance, Internet, and pay-per-call information and entertainment services
In a decision that involved two cases, the Supreme Court ruled that state utility commis-sions and individual commissioners may be sued in federal court by long-distance phone companies that disagree with the way they are enforcing federal laws (Verizon Maryland v
Public Service Commission of Maryland, 535 U.S
635, 122 S Ct 1753, 152 L.Ed 2d 871 [2002], Mathias v Worldcom Technologies, Inc., 535 U.S
682, 122 S Ct 1780 [Mem], 152 L.Ed.2d 911 [2002])
In the first of these cases, Bell Atlantic Maryland, the region’s ILEC, had refused to pay reciprocal compensation to Worldcom, a CLEC
The second case involved the same issue, except that the ILEC in question was Ameritech Illinois Under the 1996 Telecommunications Act, local calls trigger the ILEC’s obligation to offer reciprocal compensation, whereas long-distance calls do not The Maryland and Illinois ILECs refused to offer reciprocal compensation when their customers made phone calls to Internet service providers that were customers
of the CLECs, arguing that a call to an Internet service provider is a long-distance call even though the number may be local They reasoned that a phone call to another person connects the caller to that person, but a connection to the Internet gives the caller access to websites and information around the world—hence, a long-distance call
The Maryland Public Service Commission and the Illinois Commerce Commission, re-spectively, rejected this argument The ILECs sued them in federal court, along with individ-ual commissioners and the CLECs in question The federal appeals courts upheld the utility commission’s decisions One of the arguments made by the ILECs was that federal courts had no jurisdiction over these cases under the Telecommunications Act However, the Su-preme Court held that the 1996 Telecommuni-cations Act is a federal law, and as such, federal courts should be able to enforce the law by hearing cases brought against state regulators
As for whether individual commissioners could
be sued, the court cited Ex parte Young, 209 U.S
123, 28 S.Ct 441, 52 L.Ed 714 (1908), and said that state officials can be sued in their official capacity as long as the suit alleges an ongoing violation of federal law, and as long as the relief sought can be characterized as prospective (looking toward the future)
The assumption that only telephone com-panies, wired and wireless, could deliver phone service was shattered with the introduction of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) by Internet service providers In 2004 VoIP was introduced for consumers with broadband, high-speed Internet connections In a report by Pike & Fischer’s Broadband Advisory Services, it is estimated that 30 million households in the U.S will be connected to VoIP by 2010
Radio
In the early twentieth century, radio was regarded primarily as a device to make maritime operations safer and a potential advancement
of military technology During WORLD WAR I, entrepreneurs began to recognize the commer-cial possibilities of radio By the mid-1920s, commercial radio stations were operating in many parts of the United States and owners began selling air time for advertisements The Federal Radio Commission was created in 1927,
to assign applicants designated frequencies under specific engineering rules and to create and enforce standards for the broadcasters’ privilege
of using the public’s airwaves
The commission later became the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which was established by the Communications Act of
1934 (47 U.S.C.A § 151 et seq.) The FCC issues licenses to radio and television stations, which permit the stations to use specific frequencies
494 TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Trang 8to transmit programming Licenses are issued
only on a showing that public convenience,
interest, and necessity will be served and that an
applicant satisfies certain requirements, such as
citizenship, good character, financial capability,
and technical expertise
Before 1996 the FCC restricted persons or
entities from acquiring excessive power through
ownership of a number of radio and television
facilities The rule was based on the assumption
that if one person or company owned most or
all of the media outlets in an area, the diversity
of information and programming on these
stations would be restricted
The Telecommunications Act of 1996
eliminated the limit on the number of radio
stations that one entity may own nationally The
FCC was also directed to reduce the restrictions
on locally owned radio stations Congress
deter-mined that less regulation was in the public
interest In 2007 the FCC enacted new media
ownership regulations that allowed
broad-casters in the 20 largest U.S cities to also own
a newspaper The regulation permitted
compa-nies to own more than one TV station In
markets where there were at least five stations, a
company could own two stations; a company
could own three TV stations where there were
18 or more stations
In addition, the FCC seeks to prohibit the
broadcast of obscene and indecent material The
Supreme Court has upheld regulations banning
obscene material because OBSCENITY is not
pro-tected by the FIRST AMENDMENT It also permits
the FCC to prohibit material that is “patently
offensive,” and either “sexual” or “excretory,”
from being broadcast during times when
chil-dren are presumed to be in the audience (FCC v
Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S 726, 98 S Ct 3026,
57 L Ed 2d 1073[1978])
Television
The commercial exploitation of television did
not begin in the United States until the late
1940s The FCC followed its example from
radio and established licensing procedures for
stations seeking permission to transmit
televi-sion signals It became the oversight body for
the U.S television industry
The FCC has applied to television a
pro-hibition similar to that imposed on radio against
the broadcast of obscene and indecent
mate-rial For purposes of parental control, the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 mandated the establishment of an advisory committee to rate video programming that contains indecent material The act also stated that by 1998, new television sets had to be equipped with a so-called V-chip to allow parents to block programs with a predesignated rating for sex and violence
In 2004 the FCC changed its 30-year policy
on the broadcasting of indecent language A broadcast television or radio station could be subjected to fines and revocation of its federal license if it broadcast someone speaking an obscenity, even if the word was used just once
Prior to this change, the FCC had a long-standing policy against the use of indecent language, but it did not prosecute one-time occurrences
The Supreme Court in Federal Communications Commission v Fox Television Station, U.S. ,
129 S.Ct 1800, 173 L.Ed.2d 738 (2009), found the policy legitimate The court did not address whether the FCC policy was constitutional under the First Amendment
Cable television became a viable commercial form of telecommunication in the 1980s Both the FCC and local governments had an interest
in regulating cable systems, with municipalities awarding a cable system franchise to one vendor
Cable operators negotiated system requirements and pricing with local governments, but federal law imposed some restrictions on rates to con-sumers Concerns about rate regulation led Congress to enact the Cable Television CON-SUMER PROTECTIONand Competition Act of 1992 (Pub L No 102-385) The act gave the FCC greater control of the cable television industry and set rate structures to control the price of cable subscriptions The Telecommunications Act of 1996 reversed the 1992 act by ending all rate regulation The act also allowed the seven regional telephone companies to compete in the cable television market to end the monopoly that cable systems had enjoyed under the previous regulatory scheme
For customers who cannot obtain cable television programming, the transmission of television signals by satellite has been a practical solution Since their introduction in the 1990s, direct broadcast satellite systems have competed with cable television systems, offering high-quality video and audio signals, and access to a wide range of programming
Congress enacted the Digital Television and Public Safety Act of 2005 to require all television
TELECOMMUNICATIONS 495
Trang 9broadcast stations to end the transmission of programming in analog format and to begin broadcasting only digital signals Funds were provided to underwrite digital converter boxes that would allow viewers to use their analog-only television sets The change was made in June 2009
Transmission of Digital Data
In the 1980s and 1990s, the use of digital data transmission revolutionized the communica-tion of words, images, and sounds Computer-driven means of telecommunication have made possible electronic mail (E-MAIL), the sharing
of computer files, and, most importantly, the Internet
The Internet is a network of computers linking the United States with the rest of the world Originally developed as a way for U.S
research scientists to communicate with each other, by the mid-1990s the Internet had become
a popular form of telecommunication for per-sonal computer users Written text represents a significant portion of the Internet’s content, in the form of both e-mail and articles posted to electronic discussion forums In the mid-1990s, the appearance of the World Wide Web made the Internet even more popular The Web is a multimedia interface that allows for the trans-mission of what are known as Web pages, which resemble pages in a magazine In addition to combining text and pictures or graphics, the multimedia interface makes it possible to add audio and video components Together these various elements have made the Internet a medium for communication and for the retrieval
of information on virtually any topic
The federal government has attempted to regulate this form of telecommunication Con-gress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) (18 U.S.C.A § 2701
et seq.[1994]), also known as the Wiretap Act, which made it illegal to read private e-mail The ECPA extended to e-mail most of the protection already granted to conventional mail This protection, however, has not been extended to all e-mail transmitted in the workplace
A controversial issue in the workplace is whether an employer should be able to monitor the e-mail messages of its employees An employer has a strong legal and financial motive
to prohibit unauthorized and inappropriate use
of its e-mail system Under the Wiretap Act, a
company is not restricted in its ability to review messages stored on its internal e-mail system In addition, interception of electronic communi-cations is permitted when it is done in the ordinary course of business or to protect the employer’s rights or property This exception would apply when, for example, an employer has reasons to suspect that an employee is using the E-mail system to disclose information to a competitor or to send harassing messages to
a coworker Finally, the prohibitions of the Wiretap Act do not apply if the employee whose messages are monitored has explicitly or im-plicitly consented to such monitoring
Congress sought to curb the transmission
of indecent content on the Internet and other computer network telecommunications systems
by enacting the Communications Decency Act (CDA) (47 U.S.C.A § 223(a)-(h)), as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 The CDA made it a federal crime to use telecommunica-tions to transmit“any comment, request, sugges-tion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene or indecent, knowing that the recipient of the communication is under
18 years of age, regardless of whether the maker
of such communication placed the call or initiated the communication.” It includes penalties for violations of up to five years imprisonment and fines of up to $250,000
In Reno v American Civil Liberties Union,
521 U.S 844, 117 S Ct 2329, 138 L Ed 2d 874 (1997), the Supreme Court struck down the
“indecent” provision as a violation of the First Amendment right of free speech Congress enacted a modified law that was struck down
in Ashcroft v American Civil Liberties Union, 535 U.S 564, 122 S Ct 1700, 152 L Ed 2d 771 (2002) Congress then enacted the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploita-tion of Children Today Act of 2003, 117 Stat
650 The law focused on the pandering ofCHILD PORNOGRAPHY, i.e., the offering or soliciting of supposed pornographic images The Supreme Court, in U.S v Williams, U.S. , 128 S.Ct
1830, 170 L.Ed.2d 650 (2008), upheld the statute The court found that the law only
“prohibits offers to provide and requests to obtain child pornography.” The law did not require the “actual existence” of child PORNOG-RAPHY Rather than focusing on the underlying material the law targeted the“collateral speech that introduces such material into the child-pornography distribution network.”
496 TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Trang 10Standards in Telecommunication
Certain telecommunication methods have
be-come standards in the telecommunication
in-dustry because devices with different standards
cannot communicate with each other Standards
are developed either through the widespread use
of a particular method or by a standard-setting
organization The International
Telecommuni-cation Union, aUNITED NATIONSagency that sits
in Geneva, Switzerland, and one of its
opera-tional bodies, the Internaopera-tional Telegraph and
Telephone Consultative Committee, play a key
role in standardizing telecommunication
meth-ods For example, the committee’s standards
for the fax machine that were adopted in the
1980s facilitated the dramatic increase in use
of this form of telecommunication
FURTHER READINGS
Barron, Jerome, and Thomas Dienes 2006 First Amendment
Law in a Nutshell 6th ed St Paul, MN: Thomson West.
Carter, T Barton 2006 Mass Communications Law in a
Nutshell 6th ed St Paul, MN: West Group.
Zarkin, Kimberly, and Michael Zarkin 2006 The Federal
Communications Commission New York: Greenwood
Press.
CROSS REFERENCES
Broadcasting; Electronic Surveillance; Employment Law;
Entertainment Law; Fairness Doctrine; Pornography;
Privacy.
TELEVISION
In the early 2000s, television remained the most
powerful medium of mass communication seen
regularly by most persons in the United States
Television signals have traditionally been
deliv-ered by using antennas (broadcast),
communi-cation satellites, or cable systems Because of
television’s societal impact, the federal
govern-ment regulates companies that operate
televi-sion systems
Experimental television systems were
de-veloped in the 1930s, but commercial
exploi-tation did not occur in the United States until
the late 1940s Initially, television signals were
broadcast from antennas and received by a
television set in a person’s home or business
Improved technology led to the replacement
of black-and-white images with color signals in
the 1960s
The FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
(FCC), which was established by the
Commu-nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.A § 151 et seq.),
originally was charged with the regulation of
radio With the introduction of television and the need for television stations to obtain FCC licenses to use broadcast frequencies, the FCC assumed sole jurisdiction over the television industry
Television broadcasts may be regulated for content Typically, this regulation has focused
on broadcasts of allegedly obscene or indecent material The U.S Supreme Court has upheld regulations banning obscene material, as OB-SCENITYis not protected by the FIRST AMENDMENT
to the U.S Constitution It has also permitted the FCC to prohibit material that is “patently offensive” and either “sexual” or “excretory”
from being broadcast during times when chil-dren are presumed to be in the audience (FCC v
Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S 726, 98 S Ct
3026, 57 L Ed 2d 1073[1978])
The TELECOMMUNICATIONSAct of 1996 (Pub
L No 104-104) mandated the establishment of
an advisory committee for the rating of video programming that contains indecent materials for purposes of parental control The act also required televisions with screens 13 inches or larger, manufactured after 1998, to be equipped with a so-called V chip to allow parents to block programs having a predesignated rating for sex and violence In 1998 the FCC approved the program rating system developed by the net-works to assist parents in monitoring the shows their children watch
CABLE TELEVISION has grown tremendously since the 1980s Cable television originally served communities in mountainous regions that had difficulty receiving broadcast transmis-sions Many communities solved this problem
by erecting tall receiving towers to capture broadcast signals and retransmit them over wires running from the tower to homes that sub-scribed to this service
During the 1970s and 1980s, large corpora-tions installed cable systems in every large metropolitan area in the United States, as well
as in many rural areas Independent program-ming was transmitted on cable systems by companies such as Home Box Office (HBO) and Cable News Network (CNN)
Although cable television could not be categorized as broadcasting in the traditional sense, the FCC adopted the first general federal regulation of cable systems Local government also became involved, as each municipality had
to award a cable system franchise to one vendor
TELEVISION 497