As we reported last year, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once had a chance encounter in New York City with actress Sarah Jessica Parker. Other than that, we're guessing the justice rarely has occasion to bandy about the names of Hollywood celebs like Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, and Cher. But he mentioned all three this morning from the bench as he announced the Court's 5-4 ruling in FCC v. Fox Television Stations Inc.
With more detail and seeming relish than was required, Scalia quoted their off-color comments made during live Fox award shows in 2002 and 2003, and he used euphemisms where they did not. During one of the shows Scalia said, Cher told critics, "So f*** 'em." He also cited Richie's comment about her former reality TV show called The Simple Life. "Have you ever tried to get cow s*** out of a Prada purse? It's not so f***ing simple," Scalia quoted Richie as saying. Spectators laughed a little awkwardly.
Scalia did the honors because he wrote the majority in the long-awaited "fleeting expletives" case, in which Fox challenged the decision by the FCC to put Fox on notice for Cher and Richie's one-time use of what Scalia said "we will call the F-word and the S-word." The majority found that the FCC had acted reasonably in tightening up its policy on indecent language over the airwaves to cover fleeting expletives, which had previously not been viewed as a serious violation if a violation at all.
The Court explicitly did not rule on Fox's argument that the FCC's new policy violated the First Amendment. The case now goes back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which could take up the First Amendment issue. That court has already expressed doubt about the policy's constitutionality. More on the ruling and on other Court action later at legaltimes.com.
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