When the Supreme Court handed down its 1978 ruling in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, it upheld the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate indecency on the public airwaves. Unfortunately, the Court gave the agency relatively little guidance concerning the definition of “indecency,” a point that George Carlin made repeatedly during a 1973 monologue that, ironically enough, was the subject of the ruling. But a clear message that the Court did deliver to the FCC and to licensees was that Carlin had successfully identified seven words that the FCC could regulate on broadcast television and radio.
We have now lived with Pacifica and Carlin’s insights for three decades. In this Article, the Author would like to make some suggestions concerning the importance of the points Carlin made in his monologue entitled Seven Filthy Words. Further, given the recent Second Circuit ruling in Fox Television Stations v. FCC, the Author urges the FCC to revisit its current indecency policy, which seems to have become increasingly unworkable.