The FCC's indecency rules have, in recent months, twice been declared unconstitutional by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit - essentially finding that the FCC's policies imposed unconstitutional restrictions on speech as they did not give broadcasters any way of determining what was permitted and what was prohibited. After seeking several extensions of time to determine whether to seek Supreme Court review of the Court of Appeals decisions, the FCC today released its Petition for Certiorari to the high court. The Supreme Court need not hear this request for review though, given its previous decision on these rules (which we wrote about here), and the high publicity and public interest in this subject, the case could quite well end up on the schedule.

This appeal deals with two cases. First, it seeks review of the decision of the Court of Appeals throwing out the fleeting expletive admonitions given to Fox network stations for the broadcast of two Billboard Music Award shows that contained expletives, one by Cher and one by Nicole Richie. Following the precedent set by the Golden Globes case (where Bono used the "F word"), the Commission held that the use of one of these single words, even if not used in a sexual context, were inherently indecent. The second case covered by the Supreme Court petition was for the depiction of bare female buttocks in the program NYPD Blue - resulting in $27,500 fines on a number of ABC stations. This decision was also overturned by the Court of Appeals.