Supreme Court may loosen restrictions on broadcasters in Nicole Richie swearing case

There is some hope that when the U.S. Supreme Court this week  will decide that broadcasters should not be shackled with Federal Communications Commission fines for on-air indecency. The case on the docket concerns swear words used by Cher and Nicole Richie on an awards show broadcast on Fox television and a scene of a [...]

Federal appeals court okays profanity in citizen’s petition to city

A city cannot reject a petition from a citizen just because the citizen peppers his appeal with profanities and insults ruled the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado. The court rejected the contention that the petition lost its constitutional protection because it contained “fighting words.” -db From the First Amendment Center, November 18, 2011, [...]

Profanity not always protected by First Amendment

A suburban Chicago city recently rescinded a law against profanity in public places out of concern that the law may run afoul of the First Amendment, but says David L. Hudson Jr. of the First Amendment Center, the Constitution does not always protect profanity. The list of unprotected speech includes fighting words, true threats and [...]

Professor censors profanity on student free speech wall

A Sam Houston State University professor removed an insult to President Barack Obama posted by a student on the student free speech wall. Incensed by the censorship, students reported the vandalism to the campus police. Rather than come to the aid of the student in support of the First Amendment, the police threatened students with [...]

Slaughterhouse Five among books banned recently by high school districts

Writing for the First Amendment Center, Ken Paulson objects to the censorship of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five by the Republic, Missouri school board, recalling first reading it as a freshman in high school, “As a 15-year-old, I found the book to be very challenging; it explored difficult concepts such as free will and fate in [...]

Cohen v. California cited as pillar in free speech law

Writing for the First Amendment Center, David L. Hudson Jr. says the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Cohen v. California strengthened free speech by limiting the fighting words doctrine, clarifying the difference between obscenity and profanity, making the case that offensive speech should be protected and warning that governments could ban language representing unpopular [...]

Federal appeals court affirms cursing police in Virginia could get you arrested

The 4th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a man could not contend that a law was unconsitutional and break the law with impunity. The court said that the man could only count on absolution if the law were “grossly and flagrantly unconstitutional.” The man called a police officer a “bitch,” and the officer  arrested [...]

Los Angeles Times criticized for publishing full text of basketball star’s slur

While The New York Times called Kobe Bryant’s verbal assault on a referee a “gay slur”, the Los Angeles Times printed the slur uncensored (“f—ing faggot”). Nancy Sullivan of the Los Angeles Times explained why they printed the full text of Bryant’s slur, “Derogatory terms such as the one in the Kobe Bryant story are [...]

Mississippi community college punishes student for swearing outside of class

Free speech advocates say community college exceeded its authority in policing vulgarity. -db FIRE May 18, 2010 JACKSON, Miss.— Mississippi’s largest community college unconstitutionally bans “cursing and vulgarity” and has barred a student from a course for swearing outside of class. After Hinds Community College (HCC) student Isaac Rosenbloom was forbidden to return to class [...]

State courts find teen-agers’ ‘fighting words’ unprotected

Teen-agers are finding that courts are unsympathetic to their use of “fighting words”, viewing the language as disorderly conduct and affirming lower court decisions in finding the teen-agers delinquent. -db First Amendment Center Commentary March 11, 2010 By David L. Hudson Jr. Recent court decisions in Arizona and North Dakota demonstrate that kids can face [...]

Pittsburgh: Federal jury to hear middle finger suit

In the heat of a parking dispute, an angry citizen raised his middle finger to a police officer and was cited for obscene gestures and vulgar language. The man is now suing for damages claiming his gestures and profanities were protected under the First Amendment.  -DB Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW September 7, 2009 By Brian Bowling A federal [...]