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Indecent Speech On Broadcast Television: A Constitutional Challenge To The Government’S Time-Channeling Provisions, Krista Jacobsen

Krista S. Jacobsen

What is the correct level of scrutiny under which to evaluate the constitutionality of restrictions of indecent speech in broadcast television? The Supreme Court has never articulated the answer to this question. Since the mid-1970s, however, courts have seemingly afforded a lower-than-strict level of scrutiny to governmental restrictions of indecent speech in broadcast television.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attempts to “time-channel” indecent content on television to the hours when children are unlikely to be in the audience. In 2006, the FCC announced that it was adopting a more aggressive approach to indecent speech on television. In the future, even …