Wardrobe Malfunction Case Demonstrates the Government Makes A Lousy Parent

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON – Today the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has an opportunity to make clear to the Federal Communications Commission that the job of parenting belongs to parents and not to government. The U.S. appeals court today considers the case of singer Janet Jackson’s famous “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 American football Super Bowl halftime show.

In July, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the “Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act,” sponsored by Democratic Senators Jay Rockefeller and Mark Pryor. The act would require the FCC “to maintain a policy that a single word or image may be considered indecent.”

ACLU Legislative Counsel Marvin Johnson said, “The FCC makes a lousy parent. Five unelected bureaucrats should not get to decide for the entire United States what viewers should see and hear. Parents have the tools they need to protect kids. The government should not try to parent the parents. The Third Circuit has the opportunity to tell the FCC to get out of America’s living rooms. We don’t want the government in our living rooms telling us what we can watch.

For more information on the ACLU’s effort to get government out of the living room go to: blog.aclu.org/index.php?/archives/270-Should
-the-FCC-Parent-the-Parents.html