A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled that non-commercial educational radio broadcasters are exempt from auctions for commercial broadcast licenses, overturning Federal Communications Commission rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously agreed that the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 requires the FCC to exempt the non-commercial educational (NCE) radio broadcasters from participating in auctions and vacated the agency's rules. "The fact remains that under the Act's plain language, the Commission must exempt NCEs from participating in all auctions," Judge David Tatel said in the three judge panel's opinion. The broadcasters are already exempt from bidding for broadcast licenses in a part of the radio spectrum that is reserved for them, but the FCC had issued rules that said they were not exempt when applying for channels outside that band.Instead, the educational broadcasters receive licenses through hearings. The challenge was brought by National Public Radio. The FCC had no immediate comment and an NPR spokeswoman was not available for comment.