The U.S. wants a month more to decide whether to appeal an indecency...
The U.S. wants a month more to decide whether to appeal an indecency decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The decision threw out a $1.2 million fine against ABC affiliates for briefly showing a…
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woman’s buttocks on NYPD Blue (CD Jan 5 p2). U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal sought an extension from April 4 to May 4 of the deadline for a cert petition to the Supreme Court. That’s according to Media Access Project Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman, who got a copy of Katyal’s request dated Friday and not made available in electronic format. Katyal’s earlier request for a month-long delay to April 21 to decide whether to appeal the 2nd Circuit’s decision in the Fox case, which also went against FCC indecency policy, was granted, said Schwartzman. He represented groups that backed broadcasters in ABC and Fox. Should the U.S. seek to appeal the 2nd Circuit’s ABC ruling, the high court could wait to act on the case until the justices decide whether to hear oral argument in Fox, Schwartzman said. The high court earlier heard the Fox case, which it decided in favor of the government, and sent the case back to the 2nd Circuit, which again sided with the broadcast network. Another scenario is that the high court considers the ABC and Fox cases together, said Schwartzman, who predicted the court will eventually consider Fox. In that case, the commission said isolated curse words on the network’s Billboard Music Awards show violated indecency rules.