Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
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UNITED STATES v. PLAYBOY ENTERTAINMENT
GROUP, INC.
Opinion of the Court

Assistant Attorney General Schultz, Deputy Solicitor Gen-
eral Kneedler, Jacob M. Lewis, Edward Himmelfarb, and
Christopher J. Wright.

Robert Corn-Revere argued the cause for appellees. With
him on the brief were Jean S. Moore and Burton Joseph.*

Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents a challenge to § 505 of the Telecommuni-
cations Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104–104, 110 Stat. 136, 47 U. S. C.
§ 561 (1994 ed., Supp. III). Section 505 requires cable televi-
sion operators who provide channels “primarily dedicated to
sexually-oriented programming” either to “fully scramble or
otherwise fully block” those channels or to limit their trans-
mission to hours when children are unlikely to be viewing,
set by administrative regulation as the time between 10 p.m.
and 6 a.m.
47 U. S. C. § 561(a) (1994 ed., Supp. III); 47 CFR
§ 76.227 (1999). Even before enactment of the statute, sig-
nal scrambling was already in use. Cable operators used
scrambling in the regular course of business, so that only
paying customers had access to certain programs. Scram-
bling could be imprecise, however; and either or both audio
and visual portions of the scrambled programs might be
heard or seen, a phenomenon known as “signal bleed.” The
purpose of § 505 is to shield children from hearing or seeing
images resulting from signal bleed.

To comply with the statute, the majority of cable operators
adopted the second, or “time channeling,” approach. The
effect of the widespread adoption of time channeling was to

*Janet M. LaRue, Paul J. McGeady, and Bruce Taylor ﬁled a brief for

the Family Research Council et al. as amici curiae urging reversal.

Briefs of amici curiae urging afﬁrmance were ﬁled for the American
Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression et al. by Michael A. Bam-
berger; for the Media Institute by Laurence H. Winer; for the National
Cable Television Association by Daniel L. Brenner and Michael S.
Schooler; for Sexuality Scholars, Researchers, Educators, and Therapists
by Marjorie Heins and Joan E. Bertin; and for the Thomas Jefferson
Center for the Protection of Free Expression by J. Joshua Wheeler.