Without much fanfare, NBC made an interesting announcement Tuesday: if Fred Thompson becomes a presidential candidate, his episodes of "Law and Order" will no longer be rerun.

As reported [1] by the New York Daily News Wednesday (emphasis added throughout):

"If Fred Thompson formally declares his intention to run for President, NBC will not schedule any further repeats of 'Law & Order' featuring Mr. Thompson beyond those already scheduled, which conclude on Saturday, Sept. 1," [executive producer Dick] Wolf said.

Wolf assured that NBC would take all "appropriate steps consistent with FCC regulations."

"Consistent with FCC regulations" appears to relate to the Equal Time [2] rule:

Thompson played D.A. Arthur Branch on the show for five years. If Thompson is legally declared a candidate, and NBC airs episodes that feature 10 minutes of him, under the equal-time requirement the network would then have to feature all the other Republican candidates for an equal 10 minutes in some shape or form.

I'm not an attorney, but I'm not sure that's true. In fact, the opening section of the code suggests otherwise:

§ 315. Candidates for public office

Eugene Volokh doesn't agree [3] with my assessment:

Entertainment programming is not included within any of these exceptions; and the FCC and the courts have ruled that appearances as actors or entertainers are covered as "use [of] a broadcasting station." See, e.g., Paulsen v. FCC, 491 F.2d 887 (9th Cir. 1974) (entertainment appearances by comedian and jocular Presidential candidate Pat Paulsen); In re Weiss, 58 F.C.C.2d 342 (1976) (broadcast of movies in which Ronald Reagan had acted); In re Culpepper, 99 F.C.C.2d 778 (same); 100 F.C.C.2d 1476 ¶ 34(d) (1984) ("If an actor becomes a legally qualified candidate for public office, his appearances on telecasts of his movies thereafter will be uses, entitling his opponents to equal time, if the actor is identifiable in the movies"); id. ¶ 34(e) (taking the same view for other broadcast appearances, for instance by "the host of a teenage dance show," "a radio disc jockey," and a minister on a religious program).

Thank you for the speedy reply, Professor.