A divided Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a federal prohibition on the one-time use of expletives in a case arising partly from an expletive uttered by Cher at a Billboard Music Awards show in 2002.
The ruling, by a 5-4 vote and written by Justice Antonin Scalia, endorsed a Bush administration Federal Communications Commission policy against isolated outbursts of, as Scalia said from the bench, the “f-word” and “s-word.”
The ruling does not resolve a lingering First Amendment challenge to the 2004 policy that is likely to be subject to further lower court proceedings.
My guess is that the reaction of the losers in this case can’t be broadcast either.
First, while the headline indicates the Supremes outlawed these “outbursts,” the text properly notes they merely “upheld a federal prohibition…”
Second, as can be seen from the article and the opinions, this is a very limited decision. Interesting to me is the concurrence of Justice Clarence Thomas who called for a reexamination of [i]Red Lion[/i] (which upheld the Fairness Doctrine and the Personal Attack Rule) and [i]Pacifica[/i] (which upheld a restriction on [George Carlin’s] 7 Dirty Words). As I read J. Thomas he would strike down these and related broadcasting rules and violations of the First Amendment: “[i]Red Lion[/i] and [i]Pacifica[/i] were unconvincing when they were issued, and the passage of time has only increased doubt regarding their continued validity.”
Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but this is about like regulating Quixote’s windmills. I mean, very view people exclusively watch network television. Cable channels are pretty much immune from this.