The US Supreme Court has said it will hear in September arguments in the case of the so-called fleeting expletives, which are single uses of the f--k word in broadcasts. The case stems from two incidents in which Cher said the f-word and Nicole Richie uttered a variation of the same word and said also the foul word for excrements.

The Federal Communications Commission said in 2006 that both incidents, which happened during the "Billboard Music Awards" show, were indecent. However, a federal appeals court in New York ruled 2-1 that the FCC has no authority in regulating such incidents and their rules might be unconstitutional.

There are two possible outcomes. Either the Supreme Court could rule that the Federal Communications Commission has the power to decide what is acceptable for broadcasts or the justices could find that the 1st Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech does not give authority to the government regulator to punish broadcasters for an accidental vulgarity.

"This does come as a surprise," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, prexy-CEO of activist group Media Access Project, in a statement. "We were not alone in expecting that the court would reject the government's request to hear the fleeting expletive challenge."

However, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told the press that he is pleased with the decision. "I continue to believe we have an obligation ... to enforce laws restricting indecent language on television and radio when children are in the audience," Martin said.

The television networks also looked forward to the clash before the Supreme Court. Fox said that it hopes the justices will settle the matter and rule that FCC's expanded enforcement of the indecency law is unconstitutional.