Abstract
Levi sketches out the history of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) approach to indecency on the air, describes the Supreme Court's responses--from Pacafica to Fox I and II, and attempts to assess the implications of what the Court did and didn't say in its most recent decisions. She details not only the latest, most obvious policy changes addressed by the Supreme Court in the Fox cases but also the far less noted procedural and substantive changes to the FCC's indecency scheme. She also reveals the fundamental changes in the FCC's regulatory justifications for its indecency regime and lays out the complex political picture against which these evolutions have taken place. In addition, she recommends a policy of FCC restraint on indecency enforcement and makes practical recommendations to serve as directions for the new restraint-guided by the goals of reducing the chilling effect of indecency enforcement on broadcasters, improving the indecency regulation process at the FCC, and empowering parents.