The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a federal administrative agency that regulates television and radio. The FCC is authorized to restrict indecent material on television during the hours of 6: 00 a. m. to 10: 00 p. m. In 2001, the FCC issued guidelines stating that material that dwelled on or repeated at length offensive descriptions or depictions violated federal communications laws. In both the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards program televised live by Fox Television Stations, Inc. (Fox), a person used the f*** word once in each broadcast. In 2003, an episode of NYPD Blue, a regular television show broadcast by ABC Television Network (ABC), showed the nude buttocks of an adult female for approximately seven seconds as she entered a shower.
In 2004, the FCC issued guidelines that stipulated that fleeting expletives and momentary nudity on television was a violation of federal communications law. The FCC applied the 2004 guidelines retroactively and issued orders finding that both Fox and ABC violated communications law by showing fleeting expletives and momentary nudity on television in 2002 and 2003. The FCC assessed a $ 1.24 million penalty on ABC. Fox and ABC challenged the orders, alleging that there had been a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause because they had not been notified prior to the events occurring that fleeting expletives and momentary nudity violated communications law. Did the FCC violate the Fifth Amendment’s due process rights of Fox and ABC? Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 132 S. Ct. 2307, 2012 U. S. Lexis 4661 (Supreme Court of the United States, 2012)