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Sumner County man claims First Amendment rights violated after citation for car sticker
Fox 17 ^ | 26 September, 2019 | Kathleen Serie

Posted on 09/28/2019 6:13:43 AM PDT by marktwain

A Sumner County man is claiming his first amendment rights have been violated after Sheriff’s Department deputies cited him for an obscene car sticker.

It shows two rifles sandwiching the letters “U” and “C,” followed by the words “Gun Control.”

According to the official citation, law enforcement says the message spells out the “F word."

Nicholas Ennis says it’s been on his truck for about a year.

“It’s got the symbol of a M-16 at the front and a symbol of an AK-47 at the end of it. The only thing you see on it is U-C gun control and two guns,” Ennis said.

The car decal caught the eye of deputies yesterday at the Mapco in Westmoreland.

“He said the reason I pulled you over was because of my sticker on my truck being potentially obscene,” Ennis said.

(Excerpt) Read more at fox17.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: banglist; firstamendment; secondamendment; tn
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Looks like a violation of his First Amendment rights under color of law, to me.
1 posted on 09/28/2019 6:13:43 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/403/15.html


2 posted on 09/28/2019 6:17:49 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: marktwain

While I am sympathetic to the general sentiment, I think there can and should be reasonable standards toward offensive speech in the public arena.

Our culture has become increasingly crass and it’s not an improvement.

Whether it rises to the level of a legal offense though, I can’t say.


3 posted on 09/28/2019 6:19:30 AM PDT by cyclotic (Democrats must be politically eviscerated, disemboweled and demolished.)
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To: marktwain

Personally, I find it obscene. I don’t like when liberals use that word as an all-encompassing generalization. Without it, they can not communicate. I don’t like seeing it on t shirts, bumper stickers, hearing it from political candidates, etc. The guy may have a right to display it, but he shouldn’t. I’m fine with him getting a ticket for that, just make sure its across the board.


4 posted on 09/28/2019 6:20:33 AM PDT by bk1000 (I stand with Trump)
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To: marktwain

I wonder whether the old BUCK FUSH bumper stickers are ok. I’m sure they are.


5 posted on 09/28/2019 6:23:46 AM PDT by JerseyDvl ("If you're going through hell, keep going.")
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To: bk1000
There's a car where I live that has this bumper sticker:

How's My Driving?
1-800-EAT-SHIT

Kinda indicative of the owner's mentality and lack of maturity.

6 posted on 09/28/2019 6:27:17 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Yeah, well, y'know that's just like, uh... your opinion, man.)
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To: JerseyDvl

I like GUCK FORE better.


7 posted on 09/28/2019 6:29:21 AM PDT by Track9
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To: bk1000
Personally, I find it obscene. I don’t like when liberals use that word as an all-encompassing generalization. Without it, they can not communicate. I don’t like seeing it on t shirts, bumper stickers, hearing it from political candidates, etc. The guy may have a right to display it, but he shouldn’t. I’m fine with him getting a ticket for that, just make sure its across the board.

Personally, I find you obtuse.

Examine your last insane sentence. ...just make sure that its across the board.

WTF. Where have you been living for the past 40 years?

The bullshit rules only apply to the right, the left skates.

Riddle me this batman, you say the guy has a right to display it, but you are OK with him getting a ticket because he did something that he has a right to do.

Try thinking before you post something so stupid because you don't like to see that slang term for 'fornicate'.

You should apologize to all rational FReepers for making us brain damaged trying to read that feel good pap.

Oh, I don't like that bad word. Let the cops give him a fine.

I will accept your apology, in absentia.

8 posted on 09/28/2019 6:34:08 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist mooselimb savages, today.)
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To: All

What state was this? I hate these posts that only mention county or small town.


9 posted on 09/28/2019 6:34:15 AM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: marktwain

Years ago I was peripherally involved in an obscenity case. At the time, what determined what was obscene was “community standards”.


10 posted on 09/28/2019 6:39:10 AM PDT by ryderann
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To: USS Alaska

I will not apologize for believing in public decency. My last sentence, that you somehow have a problem with, is meant to not excuse “passionate leftists” who cannot express themselves without using profanity.


11 posted on 09/28/2019 6:40:49 AM PDT by bk1000 (I stand with Trump)
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To: bk1000

“I’m fine with him getting a ticket for that, just make sure its across the board.”

Ideally. But the truth is that the issue is subjective and depends on the mindset and ideology of the ticket giver. Free speech or not free speech.

“Personally, I find it obscene.”

But, “personally”, not everybody does.


12 posted on 09/28/2019 6:42:33 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: gibsonguy

Sumner County and Westmoreland are in Tennessee, just a bit Northeast of Nashville which is becoming a bastion of the Liberal Left.


13 posted on 09/28/2019 6:47:58 AM PDT by Dracomeister (The older I get the less I care about what other people think.)
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To: All

Seems like shades of Holden Caulfield:

“I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another “Fuck you” on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn’t come off. It’s hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the “Fuck you” signs in the world. It’s impossible.”


14 posted on 09/28/2019 6:51:01 AM PDT by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)
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To: cyclotic

Meanwhile a sitting US Congressperson is selling tee shirts that say “Impeach The MF”.


15 posted on 09/28/2019 6:51:41 AM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (If you want a definition of "bullying" just watch the Democrats in the Senate)
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To: USS Alaska

‘You should apologize to all rational FReepers for making us brain damaged trying to read that feel good pap.’

you became brain damaged by reading a simple declarative English sentence...?


16 posted on 09/28/2019 6:52:06 AM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: cyclotic

Offensive speech is exactly what the 1A protects. Short of restriction on “fighting words” (challenging another to a fight, making threats, etc) no standards are “reasonable” to restrict offensive speech.


17 posted on 09/28/2019 6:55:07 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy saints surrounded.)
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To: cyclotic

“While I am sympathetic to the general sentiment, I think there can and should be reasonable standards toward offensive speech in the public arena.”

That ship sailed long ago, thanks to the left. So, nowadays it’s pretty much “anything goes” UNLESS it is speech that the left do not like, and THAT is an ever-fluctuating standard.


18 posted on 09/28/2019 6:55:46 AM PDT by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

And she should be censured for that as well.

Profanity is the effect of a feeble mind trying to express itself forcefully

Tliab is the very definition of a feeble mind


19 posted on 09/28/2019 6:56:18 AM PDT by cyclotic (Democrats must be politically eviscerated, disemboweled and demolished.)
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To: marktwain

We had a similar issue down here, more offensive than this. Prosecutor threw out the ticket.


20 posted on 09/28/2019 6:56:18 AM PDT by rstrahan
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