CBS appeals FCC Super Bowl indecency fine News
CBS appeals FCC Super Bowl indecency fine

[JURIST] CBS [media website] has appealed a Federal Communications Commission [official website] decision to fine it $550,000 [JURIST report] for an incident in the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast when performer Janet Jackson experienced what was later euphemistically labeled a "wardrobe malfunction" [Wikipedia backgrounder] that briefly exposed one of her breasts. CBS argued Friday in a filing with the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] that the ruling was "unconstitutional, contrary to the Communications Act and FCC rules and generally arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law." The media corporation has nonetheless been required to pay the fine pending the appeal's outcome.

Prompted in part by this episode, other incidents and pressure from mostly-conservative groups for stricter broadcast standards, President Bush last month signed into law [JURIST report] the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2006 [S. 193 summary], increasing by tenfold the maximum fine for indecency, from $32,500 to $325,000 per station for each violation. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

Catholic Code of Canon Law revised

On November 27, 1983, the revised Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church went into effect. Learn more about the history of Canon Law from Professor Kenneth Pennington of the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law.

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On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his will, creating the Nobel Prize. Learn more about the history of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Commission.