A new study shows that society has an influence on limiting profanity without violating the First Amendment.

Lead author of the study, BYU communications professor Ed Carter, and co-authors Trevor Hall (Boise State University) and James Phillip (BYU graduate student), began researching the topic after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals made a ruling in June 2007 relating to FCC policy. The FCC was fining networks for “fleeting expletives;” the FCC had not clearly explained explicit words would be tolerated on air.

“The paper doesn’t argue that broadcast profanity necessarily should be regulated,” Carter said, “It says that if Congress and the FCC decide to regulate profanity, which they have done, the Supreme Court has never said anything that would stop them from doing it.”

The paper explores the history of past judicial actions and how, for hundreds of years, public profanity was treated as a punishable nuisance. Even in today’s society, without violating the constitution, profanity is regulated.

“We found that in contemporary society, we still consider the F-word inappropriate in some cases,” Carter said. “Whether broadcast television remains one of those places will hinge first on the Court’s determination of whether the FCC followed proper procedures for instituting its new regulation of profanity.”

The Supreme Court has always protected freedom of speech, and in certain cases, the use of profanity. According to the Court’s opinions, regulation does not necessarily include broadcast profanity, the authors conclude.

In the article, the authors review Court precedents and use of profanity in a pubic or private setting. Though profanity may be protected as free speech in a public area, profanity when entering the privacy of one’s home can be subject to regulation.

“The court has a lot of language that says there is a special place for the home in society,” Carter said. “Yeah, you can always turn your TV off, but I think there is a sentiment that, while people may tolerate it on the street corner, they may not tolerate it in their home.”

The article appeared in the November issue of the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal, a University of California Hastings College of Law publication in San Francisco.

- Photo Courtesy of Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photography