I may soon be a felon in South Carolina as a state senator there wants to outlaw profanity:
South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford (D) has introduced a bill that, essentially, seeks to outlaw profanity.
S.56 would prohibit the public utterance or publication of printed material containing profanity. It would also make it illegal to “exhibit or otherwise make available material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.”
Any SEB readers who reside in South Carolina could also be felons if they get caught browsing this site if this bill gets passed. Not that I think it would stand up in court as it’s clearly a violation of the First Amendment, but it could be a real pain in the ass until it gets slapped down by the courts.
Wow. @Senator Robert Ford (D) …They are just words, dude. Lighten up.
Oh i just had myself a little giggle. In order to actually know what words to look for woulden’t they need to define those words in the bill? Otherwise pretty much any word could be profane. There are a bunch of words i don’t like beeing called so perhaps i could get someone arrested for calling me an idiot. To the one beeing called idiot it would be atleased kind of profane right???
The point offcource they might have to define it of else anyone can just walk in and claim someone was beeing profane. This ofcource would make the bill profane and a fellony…wow this can’t possibly end well…
Well fuck a duck! Man that is just balls.
It is a good thing we westerners are over there in the middle east trying to stop all the oppression that is happening. Could you just imagine all the freedoms we would be losing if we weren’t fighting the terrorists over there?!
As written, the constitutionality of S.56 could be successfully challenged by any first-year law student. I wouldn’t expect the law, if passed, to bear any teeth. The first person busted under the law would have every pro bono attorney in SC volunteering to take his case just to invalidate the law.
The Senator needs a brush-up on the First Amendment.
I skipped this post at first, as I thought he was complaining against public swearing, and I can’t really get that hot under the collar about stopping people run down the street shouting “Fucking bollocks up your cunt”. However when I realised it was written stuff I thought ‘We must play’.
Email him with the phase ‘Zounds sir, and Odds bodkins, I must protest.’
Any reply quoting you will place him in breach of his own law.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
, that you are seriously displeased with this.
Courtesy of VoteSmart.org
His SC Home phone number: 843-852-0777
His Capitol Home phone number: 803-798-9220
Why not give him a call and explain to him, without profanity of course
So I think I’ve figured that if this were to pass, every bookstore and library would have to get rid of about 80-90% of their stock, including Dictionaries and, of course, Bibles. Children’s books, and maybe travel guides, will be okay.
If I lived there, and this passes, I’d show that mediocre documentary about the F word (or better yet: The Aristocrats) just to poke ‘em in the eye.
Give him a dose of this little classic.
Fuck Senator Robert Ford and his idea of imposing his will on others.
The senator tried to submit the same bill many times before
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess117_2007-2008/bills/63.htm
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess116_2005-2006/bills/222.htm
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess115_2003-2004/bills/201.htm
Unfortunately, they all died out
He he. Wow after 3 times failed he’s still at it? Well you got to had it to him for not giving up.
Reminds me a little of a well known computer i once destroyed:
“If at first you don’t succede, you fail”
He is truly one of Wayne State’s finest… NOT!
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/members/bios/0606818109.html
They’re banning the Bible! Maybe they’ll admit the Bible is full of “words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.” This will get repealed on Constitutional grounds or because they can’t sell Bibles anymore. Considering where this is, I’d give those equal odds.
My friends and I called him. He claims the problem of indecency is so bad that society has gone down the hole since the 1980s and the advent of rap music.
As long as the obscenity isn’t wearing baggy pants, I don’t think there’s much they can do about it.
Does Senator Ford own a Lava Lamp?
I am guessing that they aren’t seriously proposing that it would be a felony. A misdemeanor maybe, but not a felony.
In my opinion it should be a felony, rather, for lawmakers to introduce a bill that is so blatantly unconstitutional.