Cable Nudity Nixed (in Michigan)

CABLE NUDITY NIXED
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Michigan Supreme Court has let stand a lower-court ruling finding that nudity on cable television is indecent exposure. A Michigan court of appeals last May found that Michigan's indecent-exposure statute applies to television and that TV nudity “can be more offensive than a more traditional public exposure.” Moreover, “the incidental restriction on defendant's First Amendment freedom is not greater than is essential to the furtherance of the governmental interest in promoting public morality by prohibiting public nudity,” the appeals court concluded. “We see no reason to read into the statute a limitation that would prevent its application to defendant's televised and, therefore, powerfully effective exposure.” The conviction trumps cable's hallowed First Amendment protections, at least in that court's jurisdiction -- the decision is not binding on other trial courts -- and could still give other jurisdictions a road map for regulating cable indecency. The case may be appealed to the Supreme Court, but a lawyer involved in the case said, "absent any disagreement in the lower courts or some evidence that the problem is widespread beyond Michigan, I think the chance the court will take the case is pretty slim.”
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6310819?display=News&referral=SUPP
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