Libertarians and old time conservatives are right. Keep government out of places it doesn’t belong. It should stay out of protecting the delicate sensibilities of prudes and protecting kids who know and use TV’s forbidden words before they start school.

An occasional curse word or even Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” on prime-time TV shouldn’t bring down the wrath of the Federal Communications Commission, a federal court ruled Tuesday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said the agency’s rules on indecency are too vague and violate the First Amendment, undermining the government’s primary tool for policing civility over the airwaves.

With its decision, the three-judge panel handed a victory to broadcasters such as Fox, CBS and ABC, that had petitioned the court to challenge the agency’s muscled-up approach of imposing steep fines for impromptu expletives and sexual content.
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Specifically, the judges said the FCC isn’t clear enough on what’s permissible and what’s not. In one instance, the FCC concluded that uttering a term to describe bull excrement in an episode of the police drama “NYPD Blue” was offensive. But apparently the expression for kissing another’s derriere is permissible, the court noted.

The judges said the FCC hasn’t given clear guidelines on its two main tests for indecency: whether material describes or depicts sexual or excretory organs or activities, and whether a broadcast is “patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards.”