Reply Brief
The following is excerpted from the Reply Brief of the Petitioners as submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on December 6, 2011. The FCC’s generic definition of indecency — “language that describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory activities and organs” — is the same one whose application the court upheld in Pacifica. Since Pacifica, the agency has further clarified that definition in a detailed industry guidance document that includes numerous illustrative examples. In that guidance, the commission explained that “indecency findings involve at least two fundamental determinations.”…
