DOJ Warns Supremes of Potential Undermining of FCC Indecency Regulations

DOJ WARNS SUPREMES OF POTENTIAL UNDERMINING OF FCC INDECENCY REGULATIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Justice Department told the Supreme Court that unless it weighs in on the Federal Communications Commission's fleeting profanity-enforcement regime, the FCC's regulatory power will be "severely undermined," even in cases of nonfleeting profanity. Solicitor General Paul Clement is arguing that a lower court's decision leaves the FCC little room to modify its policy other than two extremes, adding that the court's decision "attempts to coerce the commission to choose between allowing one free use of any expletive, no matter how offensive or gratuitous, or adopting a blanket prohibition on any use of expletives." If that is the case, Clement said, then the FCC would not be able to find large portions of the George Carlin "seven dirty words" monologue indecent, which flies in the face of the Supreme Court's Pacifica decision upholding the FCC's ability to regulate indecency generally and those words in particular. Clement said the lower-court decision "effectively prevents the commission from carrying out its charge, and yet it is the commission that will be held accountable for the coarsening of the airwaves."
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