THE SEVEN DIRTY WORDS YOU CAN SAY ON CABLE AND DBS: EXTENDING BROADCAST INDECENCY REGULATION AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

摘要

Congress has recently considered legislation that would increase the penalties for the broadcast of indecent content and extend broadcast indecency regulation to cable and direct broadcast satellite. Under existing case law this extension of indecency regulation likely would be unconstitutional for two primary reasons. First, many of the factors that justify broadcast indecency regulation are not present in cable or DBS. Second, both cable and DBS can provide subscribers with the ability to block unwanted programming, which would likely be found by courts to be a less restrictive way for the government to achieve its interest in protecting children from exposure to indecent cable or DBS programming.