“Four-Letter Oaths” Are Protected Free Expression, ACLU Argues
In a brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, it was reported on this day, the ACLU argued that a string of “four-letter oaths” hurled at a police officer who has just grabbed you may be “socially necessary.”
The defendant in the case was prosecuted for disorderly conduct. “Free spontaneous expression,” the ACLU argued, is as vital to society as “laughter or crying.”
In 1971 the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment protect the right to carry a sign reading “Fuck the Draft.” During the Vietnam War, Robert Paul Cohen walked through the Los Angeles County Court House with a sign on his jacket reading “Fuck the Draft.” On June 7, 1971, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction. Justice John Marshall Harlan, II, Cohen v. California, wrote that:
“Much linguistic expression serves a dual communicative function: it conveys not only ideas capable of relatively precise, detached explication, but otherwise inexpressible emotions as well. In fact, words are often chosen as much for their emotive as their cognitive force.”
Learn more about freedom of expression: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/category/speech
Read about the “Fuck the Draft” case here.
Learn about the 100 Year fight for free speech in America: Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey Stone, The Free Speech Century (2018)