How It StartedHow It Started  October 30, 1973, WBAI broadcasted the late George Carlin’s monologue, Filthy Words  Father went straight to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to complain about the foul language his son had heard  Pacifica claimed they had violated no law and were simply broadcasting the work of a “significant social satirist”

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Central IssueCentral Issue  “Does the First Amendment deny government any power to restrict the public broadcast of indecent language under any circumstances?”  15 months after the program aired, on February 21, 1975, the FCC finally issued it’s ruling  After characterizing the language as patently offensive, though not necessarily obscene, the FCC issued a declaratory order granting the complaint, but not imposing any formal sanctions

Appeal  Pacifica appealed the Commission’s ruling to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, arguing that the FCC was improperly censoring them  March 16, 1977, the D.C. Circuit Court vacated and reversed the order, holding that “Despite the Commission’s professed intentions, the direct effect of its Order is to inhibit the free and robust exchange of ideas on a wide range of issues and subjects by means of radio and television communications.”  January 6, 1978, the Supreme Court Justices voted to hear the case

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Supreme Court: FCCSupreme Court: FCC  FCC’s two major points: The word “indecent” had a different meaning in broadcasting than in regular daily life, and declared that George Carlin’s Filthy Words monologue fit the description of indecent  Said Pacifica abused it’s trust by broadcasting explicit comment in repetition throughout the program  Concerned about such content being broadcasted at a time when children were likely to be listening

Supreme Court: PacificaSupreme Court: Pacifica  Claimed that if such strict interpretations were to be followed, classical acts of literature would be banned as well  FCC has too much control over what goes on the radio and television  The word “indecent” be subsumed by the word “obscene”

Ruling  Does the First Amendment deny government any power to restrict the public broadcast of indecent language under any circumstances?  In a five to four decision, the Court found the answer to that question to be ‘no’ and reversed the decision of the D.C. Circuit Court  Time of day, viewer/audience type, and method of transmission should be taken into consideration hence forth

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