Legal Commentary

How often do you find yourself using foul language?  Are the occurrences rare, or is your conversation rather peppered with variations on four-letter words?  How many times have you slipped up in class (whether teacher or student)?  When you hear such language, are you offended by it consistently, at times depending on context, or rarely if at all?

The Supreme Court last week upheld the FCC?s implementation of a rule permitting it to levy fines in the event of a one-time profane utterance.  The FCC rule stems from what it once called a ?fleeting and isolated? use of the F-word by Bono at the 2003 Golden Globes; the rule signaled the FCC's reversal of course on that position, on the heels of similar utterances by Cher and Nicole Ritchie. 

The decision is, to me, questionable on a couple of fronts.  The Court tabled the First Amendment issues, but in doing so left quite a bit of room for further contests.  I wonder whether the non-sexual use of a term should be punished despite a standard that prohibits just such ?context[ual]? use.  I am also curious whether the FCC?s approved position is one that is detached from conversational reality (as pointed out here and here, the Court refrained from mentioning either of the two words at issue in the case once in the decision--perhaps an indication of such detachment).  To that end, I return to the questions at the outset of this post (similar questions could be asked about standards concerning nudity; the Court today directed the Third Circuit to reconsider its decision against the levying of a hefty fine upon CBS for the Jackson/Timberlake ?wardrobe malfunction?).  Have standards changed with respect to what is thought of as indecent language (or is this guy still right)?  If so, have they changed to a degree that would warrant the FCC being more accepting of ?fleeting and isolated? uses of words (particularly words used in a non-sexual manner) rather than less?  And be honest?how many times have you slipped up in class?