2 seconds ago 2009-12-04T13:00:25-08:00
Michael Jackson has dominated headlines in recent weeks, but sister Janet may come up during the Sotomayor confirmation hearing.
It has been more than five years since Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show touched off a Federal Communications Commission crackdown on broadcast indecency. And the fight is still tied up in court, pitting free-speech advocates against family-values conservatives.
The Supreme Court in May sent the Janet Jackson case back to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which had thrown out the FCC's $550,000 fine against CBS Corp. for the breast-baring incident after concluding the government's actions were arbitrary and capricious.
The justices have ordered the lower court to reconsider that decision in light of their April ruling in the so-called "fleeting expletives" case. In that narrow opinion, the Supreme Court reversed a 2nd Circuit decision and upheld an FCC sanction of Fox Television after Cher and Nicole Richie uttered profanities during live broadcasts of the Billboard Music Awards.
Now both cases have gone back to the appeals courts. And another broadcast indecency fight is also winding its way through the 2nd Circuit, with ABC challenging an FCC fine for showing a woman's behind in an episode of "NYPD Blue."
But many predict the battle could eventually go back to the Supreme Court, forcing the justices to weigh in on a larger constitutional debate over the FCC's authority to regulate broadcast television. So even if Sotomayor won't have much time to watch TV once she is confirmed, she may yet get a crash course on what's on the tube.
-Joelle Tessler, AP technology writer in Washington
