Washington — The Supreme Court would not be recommended as the best place in this city to hear a raucous conversation that makes full use of the F-word, the S-word and assorted other vulgarities.
It is a place of decorum. Officers will firmly reprimand a visitor who errs by leaning an elbow on the next chair.
Tuesday morning may be an exception, however. While the nation focuses on the presidential election, the justices will discuss the F-word and its variants in a case that could determine whether these words will be heard more on television and radio.
The nation's broadcasters are fighting fines imposed by the Federal Communications Commission for airing the banned words, even if inadvertently. For example, when Cher won a Billboard Music award, she said it proved her critics wrong: "People have been telling me I'm on the way out every year, right? So f- - - 'em." Fox TV broadcast the awards program live.
The channel's lawyer, Carter G. Phillips, said that "unless someone tells me not to," he will use in court the actual words that federal regulators hope to keep off the air.
But the case is much more than a swearing contest, with implications not only for broadcasters but for viewers and parents.
At issue is the future indecency standard for television and radio. Will these broadcasts remain under strict federal regulation because a mass audience that includes children may be watching? Or will a looser standard prevail, giving broadcasters and audiences more choice in what they see and hear?
The broadcasters say that the old rules are an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. Also, about 9 in 10 Americans receive TV signals via cable or satellite -- yet only the broadcast industry, because it uses public airwaves, is subject to the legal rules, which were set in a different era. That means most viewers have a menu of channels that operate under different legal rules, with cable channels largely free of government oversight.
"The court has not revisited this issue in 30 years, and we would like broadcasters to be treated the same as cable TV or the Internet," Phillips said.
The broadcasters say federal policing and the prospect of high fines for airing banned words poses an everyday threat. "I don't want to say all live sporting events or all live broadcasts will come to a halt, but what happens if an expletive gets on the air?" Phillips said. The FCC "can impose a huge fine on the network and on all the local stations that broadcast it."
