FCC v. Fox Television Stations

The Su­preme Court, in a nar­row rul­ing Thursday, re­jec­ted fines levied against sev­er­al tele­vi­sion net­works for hav­ing aired “fleet­ing ex­plet­ives” or mo­ment­ary nud­ity nearly a dec­ade ago.

The justices said the broad­casters were not giv­en “fair no­tice” the lapses would be treated as ma­jor vi­ol­a­tions of the fed­er­al broad­cast rules against in­de­cency. The justices avoided a broad rul­ing on the 1st Amend­ment and wheth­er tra­di­tion­al broad­casters now de­serve the same free-speech rights as cable TV and oth­er me­dia.