I see nothing in the ruling or the NAL/FO that will invalidate the
fine. The court ordered that the FCC review and fix their debt
collection practices, specifically the invocation of the Red Light Rule
was found to be unconstitutional. There is no mention of the
Forfeiture process being a problem. This only deals with the recently
adopted (in 2004) debt collection rules as evidenced by the fact that
the FO that got this into court has not been struck down.

However, if it had been, and the FCC choose to discontinue the FO
proceedings in K1MAN's case, then the rejection of his renewal
application gets easier not harder.

K1MAN has a valid argument that enforcement actions that are not
"final" cannot be used as justification for dismissal of his renewal
application. However, what constitutes a final unappealable FO is as
follows:
1. A FO that has not been appealed in the 30 days allowed,
2. A FO that has been appealed, and the appeal has been rejected by
the court,
3. A FO that has been paid (and thus not argued or appealed)

#1 is fast approaching (Less than 3 days) unless K1MAN files the
appeal. K1MAN and his supporters would have you believe that the FO
cannot be used as evidence to deny his license renewal unless he pays
it or it's collection has been argued in court. I believe that they
are mistaken. Once the FO becomes final, it IS valid evidence that can
be used in a renewal application decision, regardless of if he has paid
all or part of the fine or not.

Now, to comment on some theories hinted at by "an old friend" and
others... There is no double jeopardy here. K1MAN's proper forum to
argue the FO is the NAL response and appeal process. This is the same
as "traffic court" for a speeding ticket. If you are found guilty in
traffic court you will be assessed a fine (and court costs in some
cases). You can appeal the court decision and attempt to have it
argued again but if you fail the fine stands. You can, of course, just
plead guilty and pay the fine up front (not appealing but simply paying
the FO.) Prior to the order of the court or you pleading guilty, there
will be no points assessed on your driving record; This is the same as
the FCC not being able to use *pending* enforcement issues to deny your
license renewal. However once the fine becomes final, by court
decision, by admission of guilt by payment of the fine, points will be
on your record. So once the FO is final, K1MAN's licence is history.

If you fail to pay said fine (after it becomes final), debt collection
procedures will be started, which is a different process. This is not
double jeopardy because the debt collection case won't be about the
original violations that lead to the fine, but about the collection of
the debt. If you get arrested for not paying your traffic tickets, the
issue will be that you didn't pay, not that the tickets are somehow
invalid. Of course you are free to try and argue that the fine is too
large, unjustified, without basis etc at the debt collection trial and
attempt to get it dismissed, but the burden of proof will have switched
to you. You are going to have to prove that the fine is invalid because
the assumption will be that it IS valid. (If you had argued it in
traffic court, the burden of proof is on the other side because the
fine is assumed invalid there until proof is supplied.)

What has been stuck down is the automatic rejection of all license
applications by those who owe the FCC money for what ever reason they
owe it, not the ability of the FCC to fine folks who break the rules.