FCC v. Pacifica Foundation

In FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978) 438 U.S. 726, a radio broadcast found by the high court to be "vulgar, offensive, and shocking," but nevertheless not obscene , was held to be without First Amendment protection. Among other things, it was because of the "composition of the audience" (p. 750) in the early afternoon, "'when children were undoubtedly in the audience . . . . '" (p. 732). Concluding that under other circumstances the broadcast might have been permissible, it was stated by the court (pp. 750-751) that it might have been "'merely a right thing in the wrong place,--like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.' . . . We simply hold that when the Commission finds that a pig has entered the parlor, the exercise of its regulatory power does not depend on proof that the pig is obscene."