THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090256
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Rebuffing free-speech advocates, the Supreme Court is letting federal regulators confine racy television and radio programs to late-night hours when children are less likely to tune in.
The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that upheld government limits on indecent broadcasts. The Federal Communications Commission restricts any such program on TV or radio to the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The news media, civil liberties and children's advocacy groups and others, including poet Allen Ginsberg, had challenged the rule as a violation of free-speech rights. The appeals court had ruled last summer that the rule was justified by the government's ``compelling interest in protecting children.''
The high court's action, taken without comment, was among a flurry of orders issued by the justices Monday while most of Washington was shut down in the aftermath of a major snowstorm. The justices also heard arguments in three cases and issued one ruling.
Eight of the nine justices made it to work, several with the help of four-wheel drive vehicles sent by court officials. Justice John Paul Stevens was stranded in Florida because all Washington-area airports were closed.
The broadcast indecency rule was upheld last June by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Past court rulings have defined ``indecent'' material as that which describes sexual or excretory activities or organs in offensive terms.
Since 1987, the FCC has deemed as indecent all explicit references to such things as masturbation, ejaculation, breast size, penis size, sexual intercourse, nudity, urination, oral-genital contact, erections, sodomy, bestiality, menstruation and testicles.
Unlike obscenity, indecency is protected by the First Amendment's free-speech guarantee. Governments must justify any interference with indecent expression.
But broadcast programs traditionally have been given less legal protection than the printed word or other forms of expression. ILLUSTRATION: OTHER ACTION
Also on Monday the court:
Turned down a parents'-rights challenge to a program making
condoms available to students in public junior and senior high
schools in Falmouth, Mass. The state's highest court upheld the
program last July.
Let stand the designation of about 6.8 million acres of federal
land in Oregon, Washington and California as protected ``critical
habitat'' for the northern spotted owl. Douglas County, Ore., had
challenged the designation.
Ruled that train crews are not on duty while they wait to be
picked up at a stopped train after they have worked the maximum 12
straight hours allowed by federal law.
Heard arguments in a dispute over whether copyright protection
can be granted to the part of a computer program that instructs
users how to use the program.
KEYWORDS: SUPREME COURT RULING by CNB