more on House Passes Bill to Raise Indecency

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Chris Savage <chris.savage () crblaw com>
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:21:16 -0500
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: RE: [IP] House Passes Bill to Raise Indecency


From: owner-ip () v2 listbox com [mailto:owner-ip () v2 listbox com] On Behalf Of
David Farber
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 7:14 PM
To: Ip
Subject: [IP] House Passes Bill to Raise Indecency
 

------ Forwarded Message
From: Bob Frankston <Bob19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 18:48:10 -0500
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: David Isenberg <isen () isen com>
Subject: House Passes Bill to Raise Indecency

<snip>
> > On one of the panels a speaker said that Supreme Court had "red lined" the
principle that the FCC trumped the first amendment. I tried to look up the term
but couldn't find a definition (I presume that all words are in legalese and not
English). Is it similar to Black Letter Law -- something that is just assumed
without there being a doubt?<<
Bob,
What Powell was talking about was a case from the Œ60s known as the ³Red
Lion² case.  (One of the parties was ³Red Lion Broadcasting²). That case
basically held that the degree of 1st Amendment protection applicable to a
given medium depended on the technical and other characteristics of the
medium.  Over-the-air broadcasting is traditionally subject to less 1st
Amendment protection because of (a) its pervasiveness and (b) the supposedly
limited amount of spectrum available, imposing greater ³public interest²
obligations on those who hold it.
We can (and probably should) debate the continuing validity of this line of
cases, but I think Powell is correct that the ³law² of decency applicable to
unencrypted, free, over-the-air broadcasting is different from that which
applies to cable, or print, or the Œnet, or whatever.
Chris S. 
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