Court says FCC indecency rules violate the First Amendment

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court condemned a Federal Communications Commission's indecency policy and claimed that the guidelines for fleeting expletives and other indecencies violate the First Amendment.

Fox Television, CBS Broadcasting, and ABC had petitioned the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals and claimed that the guidelines on "fleeting expletives" implemented by the FCC in 2004 were arbitrary and capricious. The Washington Post reports the court had said that the FCC's police was "unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here." The Washington Post also adds that the agency's approach to fleeting f-bombs can be credited to U2 singer Bono, when at the Golden Globe Awards in 2003 said upon winning an award, "This is really, really [expletive] brilliant. Really, really great." Policy director for the Media Access Project Andrew Jay Schwartzman said that broadcasters will next take their case to the Supreme Court to overturn the FCC's policy. He says, "The score for today's game is First Amendment one, censorship zero."