The Bush administration, through the Solicitor General's office, is mounting a broad defense of the FCC's right to levy fines for language or actions it deems indecent. Meanwhile, Fox last week went to another court to argue the FCC overstepped its boundaries and violated Fox's First Amendment rights. According to one prominent First Amendment attorney, if the administration gets its way in the Supreme Court case involving swearing on Fox's Billboard Awards broadcast (by Cher in 2002 and by Nicole Richie in 2003), it would be almost impossible to challenge an FCC indecency decision going forward. On June 2, the Solicitor General's office, essentially the Justice Department lawyers who argue high-profile government cases, filed the opening brief in the FCC's Supreme Court challenge of a lower-court decision smacking down its crackdown on cussing. That lower court called the FCC findings arbitrary and capricious.
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