Well @#$%&, Supreme Court Upholds Ban on “Expleetive Deleetives.”

In FCC v. Fox today, the Supreme Court upheld regulation of “fleeting expletives” on broadcast television. What should be “fleeting” is the nearly century old FCC itself, but it’s desperately sought things to occupy itself in the 21st Century, and here’s another success. They insist they’re protecting my children.

As Adam Thierer at the Progress and Freedom Foundation put it:

While the Court decided this case on purely procedural grounds, its failure to address the constitutional issues at stake will leave the First Amendment freedoms of both media creators and consumers in this country uncertain until another case winds its way up to the court, which could take years.....[W]hat's the point of continuing to apply a censorship regime to one of the oldest mediums—broadcast TV and radio—when kids are flocking to unregulated mediums in large numbers? At this point, we're doing little more than protecting adults from themselves and destroying over-the-air broadcasting in the process.