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 judgement is vacated and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the third circuit for further consideration in light of FCC vs Fox Television stations," the high court said in a statement.
The Federal Communications Commission imposed a 550,000-dollar fine on CBS for breaking indecency rules after Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during a halftime performance at the Superbowl.
But the fine was tossed out in July by a federal court in Philadelphia which ruled CBS could not be held responsible for Jackson's actions.
But the high court's order comes in light of its own narrowly-divided ruling in FCC vs Fox Television stations in which it 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.
Government prosecutors had asked the Supreme Court's nine justices to weigh in on the Jackson case -- mockingly nicknamed "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.
Jackson was performing live at the Superbowl US football championship when the attention-getting move took place, in a carefully choreographed routine featuring her and fellow pop star Justin Timberlake.
Jackson's breast was exposed for a fraction of a second to some 90 million viewers.
On April 28 the court ruled that the FCC, the agency which regulates US broadcast media, was "neither arbitrary nor capricious" in imposing a zero-tolerance policy on vulgar language, overturning an appeals court decision involving an expletive uttered by singer Bono of Irish rock band U2 in a 2003 broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards.

Source: AFP