Supreme Court Backs FCC on “Fleeting Expletive” Rule

WASHINGTON: In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has voted in favor of the FCC’s policy of fining broadcasters over the use of just a single expletive on live television.

The so-called "fleeting expletive" policy, adopted in 2004, had been challenged by FOX, with a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruling in favor of the broadcaster, calling the FCC’s ruling "arbitrary and capricious." The Supreme Court today threw out that ruling. Justice Antonin Scalia said the policy is "neither arbitrary nor capricious." He added: "The agency’s reasons for expanding its enforcement activity, moreover, were entirely rational… Even when used as an expletive, the F-word’s power to insult and offend derives from its sexual meaning,"

The dissenting judges, meanwhile, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, raised constitutional concerns, arguing that the policy violates the right to free speech.

This was the Supreme Court’s first ruling on broadcast indecency in more than three decades.