Second Circuit Schedules Oral Arguments In Fox Vs. FCC for Jan 13

Apparently, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has scheduled oral arguments in Fox vs. the Federal Communications Commission for January 13. The court will give 22 minutes a side for argument. The court is hearing the case on instructions from the Supreme Court, which overturned the Second Circuit's decision that the FCC's crackdown on fleeting profanity was arbitrary and capricious and remanded the decision back to the court. The FCC concluded that the "vulgar expletives" uttered by Cher and Nicole Richie during a Fox 2002 broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards were a violation of community standards for broadcasting. The Second Circuit can now get into the First Amendment issues raised by that indecency decision, but which it did not reach in the first go-around.