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发帖数: 7881 | 1 Writing F-bomb on your speeding ticket is free speech, judge rules
Writing F-bomb on your speeding ticket is free speech, judge rules
A judge ruled that Willian Barboza (above left) had his free-speech rights
violated after he was arrested for writing profanities on a speeding ticket
A driver was merely exercising his right to free speech when he scrawled “F
— your s—–y town b——s” on a speeding ticket payment form, a federal
judge has ruled.
Willian Barboza, 24, pleaded guilty when he mailed in payment for a speeding
ticket he got in upstate Liberty in 2012, but he crossed out “Liberty”
and wrote in “Tyranny” and also added the obscenities, according to court
papers.
Sullivan County authorities didn’t like that. They rejected his payment and
he was ordered to come in for a court appearance, where they arrested him
for aggravated harassment – though a local judge later dismissed the charge
, his federal lawsuit states.
White Plains federal judge Cathy Seibel said in court Thursday that while
the court clerks who received Barboza’s payment form may have been annoyed,
that doesn’t mean he should have been arrested.
“The words at issue here are not inherently likely to provoke violent
reaction, they were not directed at anyone in particular, and could not be
interpreted as threatening any particular action,” Seibel said, according
to a transcript of the court hearing.
“The words don’t rise to the level of fighting words, and in any event
because they were mailed, they did not suggest imminent action,” the judge
continued.
“For these reasons I do find the defendant’s First Amendment rights were
violated and defendants do not seem to seriously contest that plaintiff
suffered a constitutional violation.” |
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