Contact: Robert Peters, Morality in Media, 212-870-3210

NEW YORK, May 7 /Standard 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.... [I]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.'"

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.

The text of the letter is posted at www.moralityinmedia.org, Radio/TV Indecency page.