Letter Urges Obama to Select a Supreme Court Nominee Who Will Not 'Cripple the Regular Work of Gover

[alp227]

This is a press release from the group Morality in Media.

NEW YORK, May 7 /Christian Newswire/ -- Fourteen national pro-decency organizations urged President Obama to nominate a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens "who will support the right of the government to maintain a decent society and to protect children from indecent and other media content that is harmful to them."

In a letter sent yesterday to the president, the group said, "There are currently four cases pending in the lower federal courts in which the major broadcast TV networks are challenging FCC indecency rulings and the broadcast indecency law itself. What the networks ultimately want is an unrestricted 'right' to curse as much as they want and to depict as much nudity and sex as they want (presumably, short of obscenity), regardless of the impact of this programming on children, on unwilling adults who are assaulted by it in the privacy of their homes, and on the moral fabric of society."

The letter noted that in the 2009 FCC v. Fox TV Stations decision, "Justice Stevens spoke of the 'continued wisdom' of the Supreme Court's 1978 Pacifica decision that recognized the right of adults in the privacy of the home not to be assaulted by indecent broadcasting and the need to protect children from such content. In the 1996 Denver Area Consortium v. FCC case, Justice Stevens also joined in an opinion upholding a federal law that permits cable system operators to prohibit indecent programming transmitted on cable TV leased access channels."

The letter also said, "We respectfully ask that you nominate a prospective justice who...will not turn a deaf ear to the warning enunciated in CBS v. Democratic National Committee.... n evaluating the First Amendment claims...we must afford great weight to the decisions of Congress...'The Amendment should be interpreted so as to not cripple the regular work of government.'"

But regarding the 2009 FCC v. Fox decision, Justice Stevens actually dissented from the majority decision that upheld the FCC "fleeting expletives" policy, as another conservative, Brent Bozell observed.

These orgs are behind this letter:

The letter was signed by representatives of Morality in Media, Decent TV, Parents Television Council, American Family Association, OneMillionMoms.com, American Decency Association, Citizens for Community Values, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Christian Film & TV Commission, Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, Family Research Council Action, Business & Athletes for Kids.

Hmm, so these orgs all want a law-and-order Supreme Court justice who'll use the government to enforce radical moral prudency. But I betcha they'll turn around and go back to protesting health care, public education, and other government services that actually benefit children much more than the FCC's laws banning certain words and images from TV: because those programs are SOCIALIST!

[Ozymanithrax]

1. They want an Inquisitor not a Supreme Court Judge...n/t

[davidpdx]

2. I believe Obama has already said effectively he's not going to be swayed

by advocacy groups. And he certainly wouldn't be by this one.