Wednesday, May 19, 2010



PA: US rights group sues to protect right to swear

I think the ACLU have the law right on this:
“An American rights group is suing the police in Pennsylvania for issuing tickets, which carry a jail sentence, to people for swearing.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuits earlier, argues that the right to use profanity is protected by the U.S. Constitution. ‘Unfortunately, many police departments in the commonwealth do not seem to be getting the message that swearing is not a crime,’ said Marieke Tuthill of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

‘The courts have repeatedly found that profanity, unlike obscenity, is protected speech.’ Obscenity, under the Supreme Court’s definition, refers to speech that mainly appeals to the ‘prurient interest’ in sex, according to the ACLU.”

Source

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Under NY law, using profanity in public constitutes the violation of Disorderly Conduct. The result can be either a summons or arrest. The law does require that a "crowd" gather as a result of the profanity, but makes no mention of what constitutes a crowd.

Based on this story, it appears the NY law is unconstitutional.

Anonymous said...

This would be a much better place if we would just declare the Constitution unconstitutional and be done with it.