F-word may be crude, rude, but isn't illegal, court rules

Saturday, 30 October 1999

http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/LX7342.html

By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX - The F-word may be rude, but it's not illegal, a state appellate court panel ruled Thursday.
The three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the expletive is not a ``fighting word'' and people who say or even yell it can't be charged with a crime absent some other disruptive behavior.
The case stems from an Apache County high-school student called into the principal's office to discuss an ongoing dispute with another student.
That led to a closed-door meeting involving the principal, the assistant principal and the two feuding female students.
When the assistant principal asked one of the students if she was planning to fight the other student, she cursed, saying she didn't have to take it.
Then when the assistant principal told her not to leave the room, she cursed at him again, adding ``I don't have to do what you tell me,'' before opening the door, leaving and slamming the door behind her.
The Apache County Attorney's Office charged the girl with disturbing the peace by engaging in disruptive behavior and ``by using abusive or offensive language in a manner likely to prove immediate physical retaliation.''
A judge placed her on probation for one year.
Court of Appeals Judge E.G. Noyes Jr. said the case shouldn't have gotten that far.
``The right to free speech is protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,'' the judge wrote in the majority opinion.
He acknowledged the right to free speech is not absolute.
The law allows arrests for ``fighting words,'' which he said are those ``inherently likely to provoke violent reaction when addressed to the ordinary citizen.''
Noyes said the girl's comment was unlikely to do that ``and it was less likely to provoke a such a response from a school official,'' who was listed as the ``victim'' in the complaint.


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