CBS Asks Court To Take Up Constitutionality Of Indecency Enforcement

CBS is asking the Third Circuit Court of Appeals "to assess the constitutionality of the indecency rules given current realities and find that most applications can no longer survive First Amendment scrutiny." At issue, again, is the 2004 Super Bowl incident during which Janet Jackson's breast was exposed for nine-sixteenths of one second. The Supreme Court has asked the Third Circuit to rethink its decision that the FCC's fine of CBS stations was arbitrary and capricious. That came after the High Court ruled that the FCC had justified citing Fox stations for fleeting profanity. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had also found the defense of that policy "arbitrary and capricious."