UPDATE: Obama Administration Asks High Court to Review FCC Indecency Rulings

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeActing U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal, at the Obama Administration's behest, urged the U.S. Supreme Court today to accept for review the FCC's indecency policy that restricts broadcasting nudity and profanity over the airwaves.

In its decisions in both Fox Television v. FCC (Case Nos. 06-1760, 06-2750, 06-5358) and ABC v. FCC (Case No. 08-0841), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit condemned the FCC's indecency standard as being unconstitutionally vague and violative of the First Amendment's free-speech guarantee. (See "TUOL" posts 1/5/11, 8/30/10.)

The government is arguing that the Second Circuit rulings effectively handcuffed the FCC and prevent it from carrying out its mandate to enforce statutory restrictions on broadcast indecency, whereas Hollywood moguls and First Amendment advocates contend that reinstating vague indecency rules would have a "chilling effect" on free speech.

The dedicated staff of  "TUOL" is in the latter camp, and also believes that the national debt, on-going conflicts in the Middle East, and health care are among a handful of issues that ought to command the attention of the Obama Administration ahead of  7-seconds worth of NYPD Blue actress Charlotte Ross's buttocks being broadcast in 2003, as captivating as "TUOL" remembered them to be.

UPDATE: FCC Petitions 2nd Cir. for Review of Indecency Standards Ruling

Image via WikipediaThe Federal Communications Commission has petitioned for a rehearing en banc by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit regarding the appellate court's July decision that the FCC indecency policy was unconstitutionally vague and violative of the First Amendment (See "TUOL" post 7/13/10).

The case, Fox Television v. FCC (Case Nos. 06-1760, 06-2750, & 06-5358) overturned the "fleeting expletives" FCC rule that subjected broadcasters to penalties for non-bleeped on-air expletives. Fox, CBS Broadcasting and others said the rule chilled 1st Amendment speech. U-2's Bono, Cher, and Nicole Ritchie at various times dropped F-bombs that were broadcast and resulted in fines.

A three-judge Second Circuit panel in July ruled the indecency policy under the Administrative Procedure Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 706(2)(A)] was arbitrary and capricious.  The FCC said in its petition that the ruling impedes the agency from enforcing federal statutory restrictions regarding indecent material and is seeking a rehearing of the case or that the full Second Circuit address the matter.




The FCC indecency restrictions cover the broadcast period from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. when children are most likely to be among viewers.