"Truck Nuts"=Free Speech - You Decide!

[Ghostwriter]

Well now we get into ridiculous territory. First the little girls lemonade stands are shut down and now we can't haul our "nuts".

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/02...speech-debate/

On July 5, Virginia Tice, 65, from Bonneau, S.C. pulled her pickup truck into a local gas station with red, fake testicles dangling from the trailer hitch. The town's police chief, Franco Fuda, pulled up and asked her to remove the plastic testicles. When she refused, he wrote her a $445 ticket saying that she violated South Carolina’s obscene bumper sticker law.

The South Carolina code of laws reads, “a sticker, decal, emblem, or device is indecent … in a patently offensive way, as determined by contemporary community standards, sexual acts, excretory functions, or parts of the human body.”

[knight_shadow]

Those things are extremely stupid, but if people want to display them on their cars, more power to them.

[agzg]

Well... "parts of the human body" kindof covers it, no? Whether or not it's "protected speech" would be something for the courts to decide.

Also, I like truck nuts, for the very purpose of telling me what assholes to avoid on the roads.

[AOII Angel]

What's up with a woman hauling truck nuts? They're just gross. I agree with agzg, though, they do identify the assholes on the road.

[flirt5721]

I don't mind them. Not every one that has them are assholes. Although I do agree that cars stay away from trucks with them. I like for cars to stay away from me when I'm driving my truck. Then again I think the assholes are the little cars that think they can cut in front of a truck and not realize the truck is heavier and will take longer to stop.I think they are funny and just an accessory. I don't have them on my trucks yet but my husband is going to put them on.

[KSig RC]

Shouldn't the State's Rights advocates be all up in here defending SC's right to do awkward stuff like this?

I don't know what the State's compelling interest in banning truck nuts might be, but I don't know that truck nuts really impart information or ideas in ways commonly defined for freedom of expression. I'm for leaving well enough alone, but I'm generally for fewer laws rather than more, and I'm certainly not the litmus test.

Obscenity laws are among the most bizarre in the United States, though - hell, let's start with the notion of "community standards" as a test and just quit on it for good. I wouldn't touch them with a 10-foot pole (that has a glans and balls attached, of course).

[Ghostwriter]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

Shouldn't the State's Rights advocates be all up in here defending SC's right to do awkward stuff like this?

Not if it infringes on ones free speech rights. Those are granted explicitly by the constitution in the First Ammendment. The Tenth Ammendment, as I am sure you know, is what is considered the State's Rights Ammendment. It states:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

But Freedom of Speech is Enumerated in the First Ammendment so IMO it trumps State's Rights. Others may disagree and that is why we have challenges in the courts.

BTW - I think they (nuts) are tacky and offensive and I hate them but so what.... People do have the right to be tacky and offensive.

I am, as you probably know by now, one of those who believes in State's Rights. I am a Constitutionalist first, though.

[Jill1228]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

What's up with a woman hauling truck nuts? They're just gross. I agree with agzg, though, they do identify the assholes on the road.

Because they secretly have their husband's/boyfriend's cajones in their purse? Personally, I don't know what purpose they serve and think that they are hella tacky? Do they justify getting a ticket? Um, no

Originally Posted by flirt5721

I don't mind them. Not every one that has them are assholes. Although I do agree that cars stay away from trucks with them. I like for cars to stay away from me when I'm driving my truck. Then again I think the assholes are the little cars that think they can cut in front of a truck and not realize the truck is heavier and will take longer to stop.I think they are funny and just an accessory. I don't have them on my trucks yet but my husband is going to put them on.

DH's baby is his Toyota Tundra (I nicknamed it The Beast). It irritates him when small cars try to cut him off too. He always says "might makes right"
I drive a smaller car (Civic). Trucks are bigger than me, they can have the who freaking road for all I care. I'm not gonna take them on!

And he hates truck nuts

[AlphaFrog]

Maybe it's a southern thing, but I remember seeing these a few times about 4 years ago, but not recently. I figured they had gone to bad car accessory purgatory* to keep the spinning rims company. I don't understand why this is just now an issue.

*I wish those stupid Mom, Dad, cheerleader daughter, baseball son, baby, two cats and a dog window stickers would follow quickly and die.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

Not if it infringes on ones free speech rights. Those are granted explicitly by the constitution in the First Amendment.

Right - but "free speech" as guaranteed by the 1st A. is not universal ... I'm sure you're aware of limitations such as those for obscene materials.

It appears that SC has couched this fine under a law that is, at least on face, a ban on obscenity. Now you're in a hornet's nest, as I mentioned before, since obscenity often depends on "community standards," and can be temporal, and blah blah blah. There might be a lot more going on here than one would think at first blush.

Also, I was mostly joking about the state's rights thing - although I suppose one could argue SC should have the 'right' to determine for itself what is or isn't obscene? Keep those loosey-goosey New Yorkers out of my obscenity rulings!

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by flirt5721

I don't mind them. Not every one that has them are assholes.

Kind of like a necessary, but not sufficient, condition. Got it.

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by flirt5721

but my husband is going to put them on.

Really?

I never thought it was some sort of concious decision that made people want to put them on their truck. I always thought it was the result of someone going on a xanax and coke bender, waking up and being like "what the fuck did I do to my truck?"

[flirt5721]

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk

Really?

I never thought it was some sort of concious decision that made people want to put them on their truck. I always thought it was the result of someone going on a xanax and coke bender, waking up and being like "what the fuck did I do to my truck?"

My husband just likes them for some reason. I quit trying to figure out his logic.

[BraveMaroon]

I don't have a problem with them... but does this law mean that the Pro-Life bumper stickers with pix of fetuses on them are off-limits as well? I respect the right to everyone's point of view, but it's a body part of sorts and definitely a result of sexual acts.

Point being - I have no problem banning balls if the law is applied across the board, and not selectively.

[FHwku]

do "contemporary community standards" apply to which "parts of the human body" are deemed offensive? is Calvin's butt gonna be offensive when he's peeing on the Ford symbol?



i think truck nuts are funny, but i don't see them very often. i might see a pair on the interstate. i like trailer hitch boat propellers better.

and flirt's right, the little car narrowly slicing through traffic is the asshole to avoid.