"Phil Kane" wrote in
et:

On 23 Nov 2004 13:07:17 GMT, Alun wrote:

Arguably, the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment only
applies to the states, but there are cases invoking the due process
clause of the 5th amendment, which is applicable to the federal
government.

Do not forget that holding an amateur license does not convey any
civil rights - _Howard v City of Burlingame_

I'm not sure what implications that has. I think I'd better try and find
that case and read it.

I've never actually researched any case law on ham radio. I already had
other reasons to have looked up Yick Wo, etc.


I beleive there was a Puerto Rican case in federal district court that
relied on either the 5th or the 14th in the alternative, allowing
aliens to become registered as professional engineers. I don't have the
citation for that one.

This is a little way off Phil Kane's speciality of communications law,

Not really. I am also a Registered Professional Engineer (by exam,
not waiver) and I have to keep up with such things.

although no doubt the FCC can't discriminate against aliens. Maybe Phil
knows of some case law regarding aliens and the FCC?

We all know that an alien can unilaterally cause a change in FCC
rules without a public hearing - JY1 and the Medical Code Waiver.

Seriously, about 20 years ago The Congress amended Section 318 of
the Comm Act - the section that required US citizenship to be
allowed to hold an operator license. This was part of the Ronald
Reagan privitization move to enable non-citizens to seek employment
as radio broadcast DJs which at that time required a Radiotelephone
Third Class Permit (or better). The citizenship requirement for an
amateur operator license was swept away at the same time.

I am not a lawyer, just an alien.

I hope not as bad as some of the space-aliens who post here...

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane




I think there has been a move generally away from requiring citizenship for
ham radio licences. Very few countries do anymore.

BTW, did you now that citizenship restrictions for lawyers were swept away
by In Re Griffiths, which in turn relied on Yick Wo (Rehnquist dissented in
Griffiths, on an officer of the court line of argument). My interest is
that as a patent agent and an alien I can be disbarred for simply ceasing
to reside in the US. This is not the case with any state bar. The
difficulty in applying this line of authority (Griffiths and Yick Wo) is
that the equal protection clause of the 14th is directed to the states, and
the patent agent licence is federal.

This is definitely getting a bit OT!