So tennis great Serena Williams is being fined $175,000 for her obscene tirade against a lineswoman during this year's U.S. Open.

Take that, Jerry Garcia.

Suits & Sentences dislikes speech fines; particularly those, as in Williams' case, that are imposed on athletes for their verbalizations during competition. Witness, for instance, $10,000 fines imposed several years ago by the National Hockey League on two coaches who dared to publicly criticize referees.

Speech suppression is rarely a good idea; speech suppression by a monopoly that aims to fashion a particular public image for the purpose of maximizing profit is especially obnoxious. Just sayin'.

The Williams' fine, though, does provoke consideration of who else has been financially dinged for daring speak what's on their fevered mind. A very useful Washington Post chart from several years back, for instance, identified the Federal Communications Commission's fines imposed between 1970 and 2004. 

The first fine cited was imposed April 1, 1971 on radio station WUHY. The fine imposed: $100. The offense: priceless. As the summary states:

"Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia utters string of profanities."

In other words: spontaneous expressions uttered by a frustrated perfectionist in the midst of a performance are to be punished.

The FCC went on to pound broadcasters and radio personalities of much less talent with much bigger fines, from a $500,000 fine imposed for shock jock Howard Stern's 1993 "discussion of the size of actor Richard Gere's penis, among other sexual matters," to a $715,000 fine imposed in 2004 after "Bubba the Love Sponge describes sexual activity between cartoon characters, include George and Jane Jetson."

Of course, Jane Jetson was kind of hot...