A Municipal Court judge in New Jersey has declared that a “F-ck Biden” flag is “obscene” and thus except from free speech.
No. That NOT how it works.
The Democrat mayor of Roselle Park, Joseph Signorello III, heard about the flag and ordered government goons to intervene to get the flag removed. He claims the reason he wants it down is because it’s near a school and it has outraged residents. He says “ there’s no place for profanity by a school and school children.”
The flag is owned by Andrea Dick and sits on the property her mother owns. Dick says the flag is NOT coming down.
So the town took her to court to get the flag down.
Judge Gary Bundy ridiculously ruled that “…freedom of speech is not simply an absolute right. It is clear from state law and statutes that we cannot simply put up the umbrella of the First Amendment and say everything and anything is protected speech.”
Judge Bundy claims the flag violates obscenity laws.
“The ordinance prohibits displaying "any obscene material, communication or performance or other article or item which is obscene within the Borough." It defines obscenity as material that depicts or describes sexual conduct or lacks any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
Legal expert Eugene Volokh points to the 1971 Supreme Court Case Cohen v. California where a “F—k the Draft” jacket was ruled protected speech.
Volokh points out that Justice Harlan wrote:
“we cannot indulge the facile assumption that one can forbid particular words without also running a substantial risk of suppressing ideas in the process. Indeed, governments might soon seize upon the censorship of particular words as a convenient guise for banning the expression of unpopular views. We have been able, as noted above, to discern little social benefit that might result from running the risk of opening the door to such grave results.
It is, in sum, our judgment that, absent a more particularized and compelling reason for its actions, the State may not, consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, make the simple public display here involved of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense.”
Michael Campagna, the attorney representing Dick says the banner is not coming down and vows to continue to fight.
“I am a firm believer in the First Amendment.I may not believe in what you’re saying, but I absolutely believe that you have the right to say it. That’s what our democracy is about. If you tell people that they cannot say something, that they cannot print something, that they cannot put a sign up, we’re going into censorship.”
A news report on the flag from about a month ago: