FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978) was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission over indecent material as applied to broadcasting.
Facts
In 1973, a father complained to the FCC that his son had heard the George Carlin routine "Filthy Words" broadcast one afternoon over WBAI, a Pacifica Foundation FM radio station in New York City. Pacifica received a citation from the FCC, which sought to fine Pacifica for allegedly violating FCC regulations which prohibited broadcasting "obscene" material. The affair became popularly known as "the Carlin case" even though Carlin himself was not the one being sued.
The Bench
The makeup of the supreme court and their opinions were:
Opinion
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Joined by: Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice William H. Rehnquist
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Joined by: Justices Harry Blackmun and Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. (in all but Parts IV-A and IV-B)
Concurring Opinion
- Written by: Justice Powell
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- Joined by: Justice Blackmun
Dissenting
1.Written by: Justice William J. Brennan
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2.Written by: Justice Potter Stewart
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Holding
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC action, by a vote of 5 to 4, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene." They stated that the FCC had authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience.
Legislation
In December 2003, a U.S. congressman introduced a bill (H.R. 3687) to outlaw the broadcast of Carlin's seven "dirty words," including "compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms)." (The bill omits "tits," and includes "ass" and "asshole" which were not part of Carlin's original routine).
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