ABSTRACT
The majority argued that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initiative was given significant legitimacy by the fact that "minority ownership programs have been specifically approved-indeed mandated-by Congress." Metro Broadcasting Company argued that the preferential granting of a television license to Rainbow Broadcasting under the affirmative action plan was a violation of Metro's equal protection rights guaranteed under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution because the FCC unfairly favored the minority-owned Rainbow over Metro when awarding the license. In the five-four majority opinion, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. argued that the FCC affirmative action plan in no way violated the US Constitution, rejecting Metro's claim that the provisions violated the right to equal protection of the laws. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy joined O'Connor's dissent, insisting that the FCC's affirmative action plan was unconstitutional because it did indeed violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
