Court Tosses FCC Fine For Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’

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Music,Justin Timberlake,Super Bowl,Janet Jackson,Courts
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    Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake at Super Bowl in 2004
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    Justin Timberlake hosts the 2008 ESPYs
 
 

FIRST PUBLISHED: July 21, 2008 9:39 AM EDT
LAST UPDATED: July 21, 2008 9:44 AM EDT

PHILADELPHIA, PA --

A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson’s breast-baring “wardrobe malfunction.”

The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in issuing the fine for the fleeting image of nudity.

The 90 million people watching the Super Bowl, many of them children, heard Justin Timberlake sing, “Gonna have you naked by the end of this song,” as he reached for Jackson’s bustier.

The court found that the FCC deviated from its nearly 30-year practice of fining indecent broadcast programming only when it was so “pervasive as to amount to ‘shock treatment’ for the audience.”

“Like any agency, the FCC may change its policies without judicial second-guessing,” the court said. “But it cannot change a well-established course of action without supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its policy departure.”

Copyright 2009 by Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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