Cursing on traffic ticket is protected speech, judge rules

See - Cursing on traffic ticket is protected speech, judge rules


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A Connecticut man’s profanity-laced message on a speeding ticket is protected speech under the First Amendment, a federal judge has held.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel ruled that police and prosecutors in Liberty, New York, violated William Barboza’s civil rights when he was arrested for scrawling an obscene message on his payment form for a speeding ticket he got in 2012, the Associated Press, theNew York Law Journal and the Huffington Postreport.

In a bench ruling Thursday, Siebel also ordered the village to stand trial or explore a settlement on allegations that it failed to properly train police officers regarding the First Amendment. She cited 62 other aggravated harassment arrests in the area between 2003 and 2009 which occurred “because of the use of vulgar words in what may be perceived as a threatening context.”

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