FCC pushes review of indecency policy

The Bush administration will ask the Supreme Court to reinstate a tough broadcast indecency policy that was invalidated by a lower court last spring, the nation’s top communications regulator said Wednesday.

U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement will seek Supreme Court review of the decision by a three-judge appeals court panel in June, said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to strike down the FCC’s nearly zero-tolerance policy on the broadcast of certain expletives, even if they were impromptu.

“I am pleased that the solicitor general will be seeking Supreme Court review of the 2nd Circuit’s decision,” Martin said. “I continue to support the commission’s efforts to protect families from indecent language on television and radio when children are likely to be in the audience.”

Under Martin, the FCC ruled in 2006 that almost any use of some expletives was indecent, even so-called “fleeting uses” in live, unscripted programs. The case involved two expletives uttered by Cher and Nicole Richie on Fox Broadcasting Co.’s TV airings of the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards. Other networks joined the suit.

The 2nd Circuit majority decided the policy was “arbitrary and capricious.” An appeal to the Supreme Court could broaden the case to cover broadcasters’ 1st Amendment rights.

“When the petition is filed, we will respond in due course,” a Fox spokesman said Wednesday.

In July, a Senate committee voted to give the FCC explicit authority to make “a single word or image” indecent under any circumstances.

--

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com