18 Sep Profanity is Protected Speech on Traffic Ticket

Feel free to express yourself when paying a traffic ticket, at least according to a judge in Connecticut. The ABA Journal reports that U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel ruled that the First Amendment protects one William Barboza’s profanity-laced comments when paying a speeding ticket in 2012. After he sent it in, he was hauled back into court, lectured, arrested and briefly detained. The comments were indeed lurid, but the judge ultimately ruled that they did not create an imminent threat and essentially constituted a complaint about government activity.

While not part of the original Constitution, freedom of speech was indeed part of the first Amendment (although part of the 10 amendments comprising the Bill of Rights written by James Madison and approved in 1791). It is something that distinguishes our Nation from so many others. It should not be, however, and is not, unlimited. The classic example is that you cannot yell “Fire” in a crowded theater when there is no fire. You’re also not protected for fighting words, obscenity, threats of violence, commercial speech or false statements of fact. But you can criticize the government, state your opinion, even express hate speech because of the founders’ fears that the government should not have the power to interfere with uninhibited and open discourse in our society.

Without spending too much time back in my Con Law class (thanks Prof. Goodman), any limits on speech are required to be strictly scrutinized by a court. Since the September 11 attacks, the Supreme Court has upheld laws that have the effect of limiting some speech, for example if it is involving “material support” to a “foreign terrorist organization.” Protect us yes. Let’s also do our best to avoid unintended consequences when limits on our freedoms are imposed.