updated Sat. March 16, 2024
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Berkshire Eagle
September 21, 2017
In a Supreme Court ruling quite different from Judge Woolsey's a half-century earlier, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation laid a foundation of concrete onto the Commission's ability, nay mandate, to monitor the public airwaves for obscenity between the "safe harbor" of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., presumably the hoursÃâà...
TV News Check
July 18, 2017
“The T-word has historically been considered off-limits for broadcast TV, as was affirmed in the FCC v. Pacifica Foundation case. Even comedian George Carlin once joked that it was one of the words you could never say on television. “The FCC should issue an indecency fine to send a message to FoxÃâà...
lareviewofbooks
June 10, 2017
After all, thanks to FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, it is still constitutional for the FCC to control what can be broadcast between certain hours. Nude dancing, although considered an art form that would normally be entitled to First Amendment protection, can still be lawfully prohibited pursuant to Barnes v.
ACLU (blog)
May 9, 2017
A very different standard allows the FCC to punish broadcasters for airing “indecent” material between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. That standard came out of a famous case, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, decided nearly four decades ago, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the FCC could prohibit theÃâà...
The Verge
May 5, 2017
The organization is bound by the rules of the Supreme Court set out in the landmark 1978 case, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, which established the agency's power over “indecent” and “obscene” broadcasting. The case also established the “seven dirty words” doctrine, which laid out the swear words youÃâà...
TIME
March 17, 2017
Three years later, the Court confronted an interesting twist in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, which involved the infamous recording “Filthy Words” by the comedian George Carlin. A man who had heard it broadcast while driving with his young son wrote a letter complaining to the Federal CommunicationsÃâà...
Constitution Daily (blog)
July 5, 2014
“In my view, the Court's decision in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation was wrong when it issued. Time, technological advances, and the Commission's untenable rulings in the cases now before the Court show why Pacifica bears reconsideration,” she said. As for Carlin, he said in his 2009 autobiography, “FCC vsÃâà...
The Atlantic
January 11, 2012
Under a 1978 case called FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, the Commission can in fact require broadcasters to purge broadcasts -- at least between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. -- of an ill-defined category called "indecency." Broadcasting, Justice Stevens wrote in Pacifica, is "uniquely pervasive" and more available toÃâà...
