The ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, has filed a law suit arguing that the United States Constitution protects the people's right to sue profanity.
A number of these suits have been brought. In one, a lady in Luzerne County in northeast Pennsylvania received a citation that has a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $300 fine after she hollered a word at a motorcyclist who she alleged swerved close to her.
In another case, the police actually arrested an incarcerated a man for disorderly conduct when he shouted an expletive (two words commonly used together) at a police officer what wrote him a parking ticket.
The ACLU says that there are approximately 750 people in Pennsylvania a year who are arrested or cited for using profanity. They also said that citations have been handed out in other states including Michigan and New York and that they have been successful in defending a dozen people in these profanity prosecutions.
Their main argument is that they do not feel that profanity fits into the U.S Supreme Court's definition of what profanity is and that it is protected speech. According to an ACLU spokes person, there is a difference between obscenity and profanity and that obscenity can be regulate and enforced whereas profanity cannot. Swearing is protected.
