"Viewpoint Diversity" Conditions as a New Fairness Doctrine

The article is here; the Abstract:The Trump Administration has been trying to attach "viewpoint diversity" mandates to federal funding, especially for universities. This Article analyzes the parallels between these new proposals and a much older one: the Fairness Doctrine. Lawyers who want to argue in favor of the constitutionality of viewpoint diversity mandates may get some help from Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC, which upheld the Fairness Doctrine against constitutional challenge. But the arguments against the Fairness Doctrine—ultimately accepted by the Reagan Administration's FCC in 1987, when it rejected the Doctrine—are also powerful arguments against viewpoint diversity mandates. Much the same is likely to be true of broad government-imposed viewpoint diversity mandates.