OFF THE WIRE
Sent By, Jan
Freedom of speech prevailed over a 98 year old NC Statute. This is from this months' ACLU-NC Newsletter. Cops arrested and charged a woman because she said damn on a public street and called them assholes. A disorderly conduct charge was dismissed in district court, but she had to appeal a profanity charge for using the word "damn" on a public street. In a time when other amendments in the Bill of Rights are being stepped on badly, it's good to at least see the 1st Amendment prevail.
State's Anti-Profanity Law Declared Unconstitutional
On January 7th, 2011, the ACLU-NCLF applauded a judge's ruling that declared North Carolina's ban on the public use of profanity to be an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech. The statute at issue is N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-197, making it a misdemeanor offense to use "indecent or profane language" in a "loud and boisterous manner" within earshot of two or more people on any public road or highway in North Carolina. (Note: the law, adopted in 1913, exempts Pitt and Swain Counties from its scope but applies in all other counties in North Carolina.)
On February 15, 2010, Samantha Elabanjo was engaged in conversation near a bus stop in Chapel Hill and stepped into Franklin Street as two Chapel Hill police officers drove by. The officers stopped their car and directed Ms. Elabanjo to move along. As she was returning to the sidewalk, she said to the officers, "You need to clean your damn dirty car." Then, after she was back on the sidewalk, Ms. Elabanjo referred to the officers as "assholes." At that point, the officers got out of their car and arrested her for disorderly conduct and for the use of profanity on a public roadway. The ACLU-NCLF took her case and defended Ms. Elabanjo against both charges. At trial in July 2010, the district court judge dismissed the disorderly conduct charge but found Ms. Elabanjo guilty of the use of profanity under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-197 based on her use of the word "damn."
She appealed her conviction to the Orange County Superior Court, and that appeal was argued by ACLU-NCLF Cooperating Attorney Matthew D. Quinn on January 3, 2011. Judge Allen Baddour dismissed the charges against Ms. Elabanjo, and on January 5th, he issued a three-page order declaring N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-197 unconstitutionally vague and a violation of the First Amendment protection for freedom of speech.
