By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Free speech includes the right to swear a blue streak but only "fleetingly," a court in Manhattan ruled Tuesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit struck down a Federal Communications Commission policy that barred "fleeting expletives" from free public broadcasts.
The policy was toughened in 2004 following a series of high-profile profanity violations involving entertainers like Bono, Cher and Janet Jackson. Under the statute, broadcasters could be fined "tens of millions of dollars" for the airing of a single profane word.
Ruling from its chambers in lower Manhattan, the court said that the current FCC policy violated the First Amendment "because it is unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here."
The ruling left intact a previously upheld policy that prohibited "deliberate and repetitive use of expletives to describe sexual and excretory activities," as exemplified by comedian George Carlin's 1972 monologue "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television."
While Tuesday's decision did find the FCC's current indecency policy unconstitutional, it also opened the door to a modified set of rules.
"We do not suggest that the FCC could not create a constitutional policy," the unanimous decision said. "We hold only that the FCC’s current policy fails constitutional scrutiny."
Many scholars expect the ruling to be appealed to the Supreme Court, the New York Times reported.
