Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 18 – 19, 1978 Decided July 3, 1978
Full case name: Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, et al. Citations: 438 U.S. 726; 98 S. Ct. 3026; 57 L. Ed. 2d 1073; 1978 U.S. LEXIS 135; 43 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 493; 3 Media L. Rep. 2553 Prior history: Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Subsequent history: Rehearing denied, 439 U.S. 883 (October 2, 1978)
Holding
Because of the pervasive nature of broadcasting, it has less First Amendment protection than other forms of communication. The F.C.C. was justified in concluding that Carlin's "Filthy Words" broadcast, though not obscene, was indecent, and subject to restriction.
Court membership
Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger Associate Justices: William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., William Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens
Case opinions
Majority by: Stevens Joined by: Burger, Blackmun, Rehnquist, Powell Concurrence by: Powell Joined by: Blackmun Dissent by: Brennan Joined by: Marshall Dissent by: Stewart Joined by: Brennan, White, Marshall
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I; 18 U.S.C. § 1464

Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978) is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission over indecent material as applied to broadcasting. Image File history File links Seal_of_the_United_States_Supreme_Court. ... The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and is the only part of the judicial branch of the United States federal government explicitly specified in the United States Constitution. ... Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. ... William J. Brennan, official portrait, 1976. ... Justice Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 – December 7, 1985) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ... Byron White, official portrait. ... Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Justice Harry Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. ... Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. ... William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure, who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States. ... John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is an American jurist, and the senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. ... The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ... // Case citation is the system used in common law countries such as the United States, England and Wales, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and India to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters or law reports. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... A landmark decision is the outcome of a legal case (often thus referred to as a landmark case) that establishes a precedent that either substantially changes the interpretation of the law or that simply establishes new case law on a particular issue. ... The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and is the only part of the judicial branch of the United States federal government explicitly specified in the United States Constitution. ... The FCCs official seal. ...

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. (Carlin's routine included a discussion of the "seven dirty words": shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, mother-fucker, and tits.) Pacifica received a sanction from the FCC, in the form of a letter of reprimand, for allegedly violating FCC regulations which prohibited broadcasting "indecent" material. The affair became popularly known as "the Carlin case" even though Carlin himself was not a party to the lawsuit. 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... George Dennis Carlin (born May 12, 1937 in New York, New York) [1] is a Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor, and author. ... The seven dirty words are seven English words comedian George Carlin listed in his monologue Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television, released in 1972 on his album Class Clown. ... WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99. ... Pacifica Radio is a network of five independent, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations in the United States that is known for its leftist and pacifist political views. ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps, Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Manhattan Queens Brooklyn Staten Island Settled 1613 Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... Look up Shit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up piss, pissed, take the piss in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other senses of this word, see fuck (disambiguation). ... Cunt is an English vulgarism most commonly used in reference to the female genitalia or, more generally, the region extending from the mons veneris to the perineum and inward from the labia into the vagina. ... Oral sex (from Latin os, oris mouth) consists of all the sexual activities that involve the use of the mouth, tongue, etc. ... Motherfucker (also contracted forms mother and mofo and, phonetically, in African American Vernacular English, muthafucka) is a common insult and profanity in the English language and is widely considered obscene and inappropriate. ... The word tit has several possible meanings: Look up Tit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In biology, there are several birds named tit, including the titmice, long-tailed tits, bearded tit and penduline tits. ...

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." The Court accepted as compelling the government's interests in 1) shielding children from patently offensive material, and 2) ensuring that unwanted speech does not enter one's home. The Court stated that the FCC had the authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience, and gave the FCC broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency in different contexts.

External links

• Text of the decision from the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Text of the decision courtesy of FindLaw.
• Audio of the oral argument and decision
• First Amendment Library entry on FCC v. Pacifica Foundation

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation