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Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
Law enforcement officers tend to frown on citizens interfering with their revenue generation. This has led to a number of First Amendment lawsuits from people arrested for warning others about [check notes] the existence of police officers in the vicinity.
One citizen was told as much when he was arrested for holding up a sign reading "Cops Ahead." One cop kept on script, referring to the man's actions as "interfering with an investigation." It wasn't an investigation. It was a distracted driving sting. The cop actually hauling him to the station was more to the point, telling the man he was arresting him for "interfering with our livelihood." First Amendment violation or felony interference with a business model? Why not both?
A lawsuit was filed in 2018 seeking a declaration that honking a car's horn is protected expression. And, all the way back in 2011, a class action lawsuit was filed over citations and arrests for flashing headlights to warn drivers of unseen officers.
A federal judge has decided -- albeit not very firmly -- that at least one of these actions is protected by the First Amendment. Wisconsin Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker says flashing your headlights to warn drivers of speed traps is expressive speech -- something cops would be better off not trying to punish. (via Volokh Conspiracy)
(Score: 4, Informative) by bradley13 on Wednesday May 08 2019, @06:04AM
By flashing your headlights, you are transmitting information. Granted, it's pretty much just one bit: "pay attention = true", but it is information. How can that possibly not be "speech"?
This is one thing I have not acclimated to in Europe: there are all sorts of speech that are against the law. This despite the text appearing in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which states unequivocally that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Yet, depending somewhat on country, insulting national leaders is illegal, questioning the Holocaust is illegal, various types of hate speech are illegal, and...transmitting information on speed traps is illegal.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.