Valley Broadcasting Co. v. United States

820 F. Supp. 519, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4963, 1993 WL 121039
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedApril 13, 1993
DocketCV-S-92-400-PMP (RJJ)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 820 F. Supp. 519 (Valley Broadcasting Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Valley Broadcasting Co. v. United States, 820 F. Supp. 519, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4963, 1993 WL 121039 (D. Nev. 1993).

Opinion

ORDER

PRO, District Judge.

Before the Court for consideration are Plaintiffs Valley Broadcasting Company and Sierra Broadcasting Company’s Motions for Summary Judgment (# 18 and # 23) and Defendants United States of America and Federal Communications Commission’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment (#24).

I. Facts

Plaintiff Valley Broadcasting Company (“Valley”) is a Nevada corporation licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) to operate a television station, KVBC, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The primary geographic market which KVBC serves is Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. KVBC’s transmitter, however, has the capacity to produce a grade B signal which reaches the Utah/Nevada border. 1 Based on this, potentially 4% (13,200/302,200) of all households which may receive KVBC signals are Utah citizens. Similarly, Plaintiff Sierra Broadcasting Company (“Sierra”) is a Nevada corporation licensed by the FCC to operate KRNV, a television station located in Reno, Nevada. Although the primary broadcast area for KRNV is Reno, approximately 19% (37,200/197,200) of the households which receive KRNV signals reside in California. See *522 Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment (#24), Exhibit C. 2

Plaintiffs desire to broadcast commercials related to legal gaming activities located in Nevada such as blackjack, craps, poker, roulette, slot machines, and other lawful games of chance. Reply (#28) at 3. 3 Plaintiffs, however, have been deterred from doing so based on the FCC’s enforcement of 18 U.S.C. § 1304 4 and 47 C.F.R. § 73.1211 5 , which prohibit the broadcast of all promotional advertising involving casino gambling. Motion for Summary Judgment (# 18), Exhibit 3 at 3. 6 In support of this policy, the FCC maintains that it has a substantial interest in inhibiting the growth of legalized gambling and its perceived social ills, as well as a federalism interest in furthering the public policies of California and Utah which prohibit casino gambling. See Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment (#24) at 41-48: Reply (# 40) at 7-16.

Plaintiffs seek injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment from this Court that gambling and casino activities which are legal in the State of Nevada do not come within the scope of § 1304 or § 73.1211, or if they do, that the statute and regulation as construed by the FCC are unconstitutional. Plaintiffs argue that: (1) advertising casino gaming is not a “lottery, gift enterprise, or *523 similar scheme” -within the meaning of § 1304 and § 73.1211; (2) that § 1304 and § 73.1211 as applied to casino gambling violate the First Amendment’s protection of commercial speech; and (3) the FCC’s prohibition on advertising of casino gaming by television or radio stations, and not other forms of the media, violates the Equal Protection Clause.

II. Standard of Review

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, summary judgment is proper “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.”

The party moving for summary judgment has the initial burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. See Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); Zoslaw v. MCA Distrib. Corp., 693 F.2d 870, 883 (9th Cir.1982). Once the movant’s burden is met by presenting evidence which, if uneontro-verted, would entitle the movant to a directed verdict at trial, the burden then shifts to the respondent to set forth specific facts demonstrating that there is a genuine issue for trial. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). If the factual context makes the respondent’s claim implausible, that party must come forward with more persuasive evidence than would otherwise be necessary to show that there is a genuine issue for trial. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323-24, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552-53, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 1355-56 (1986); California Arch. Bldg. Prod. v. Franciscan Ceramics, 818 F.2d 1466, 1468 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1006, 108 S.Ct. 698, 98 L.Ed.2d 650 (1988).

If the party seeking summary judgment meets this burden, then summary judgment will be granted unless there is significant probative evidence tending to support the opponent’s legal theory. First National Bank of Arizona v. Cities Service Co., 391 U.S. 253, 290, 88 S.Ct. 1575, 1593, 20 L.Ed.2d 569 (1968); Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Savage, 611 F.2d 270 (9th Cir.1979). Parties seeking to defeat summary judgment cannot stand on their pleadings once the movant has submitted affidavits or other similar materials. Affidavits that, do not affirmatively demonstrate personal knowledge are insufficient. British Airways Bd. v. Boeing Co., 585 F.2d 946, 952 (9th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 981, 99 S.Ct. 1790, 60 L.Ed.2d 241 (1979). Likewise, “legal memoranda and oral argument are not evidence and do not create issues of fact capable of defeating an otherwise valid motion for summary judgment.” Id.

A material issue of fact is one that affects the outcome of the litigation and requires a trial to resolve the differing versions of the truth. See Admiralty Fund v. Hugh Johnson & Co., 677 F.2d 1301, 1305-06 (9th Cir. 1982); Admiralty Fund v. Jones, 677 F.2d 1289

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820 F. Supp. 519, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4963, 1993 WL 121039, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valley-broadcasting-co-v-united-states-nvd-1993.