SCOTUS vacates "wardrobe malfunction" verdict

[mekender]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090504/ts ... icejackson

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Monday ordered a federal appeals court to re-examine its verdict in favor of the CBS network that aired a 2004 broadcast in which pop superstar Janet Jackson bared her breast.

The court threw out a decision by the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals last July which nullified the 550,000-dollar fine imposed by the Federal Communications Commission on the CBS network for breaking indecency rules after Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during a halftime performance at the Superbowl.

The high court said in a statement it ordered the re-examination "in light of FCC vs Fox Television stations," in which its own narrowly-divided ruling late last month determined that US regulators can impose fines on television and radio broadcasters for allowing "fleeting expletives" -- curse words used in passing -- to go out over the airwaves.

Prosecutors had asked the Supreme Court's nine justices to weigh in on the Jackson case -- branded "Nipplegate" by US media -- that raised eyebrows and stirred passions in the United States, where nudity on non-pay television is for the most part a no-no.