A Logan ordinance applied against a man who uttered four-letter obscenities at police officers is unconstitutionally broad and invalid, Utah's Court of Appeals has ruled.
In a unanimous opinion written by Judge Norman H. Jackson, the court reversed the conviction of Ralph Lowell Huber, who was charged under a 1987 disorderly conduct ordinance that criminalized "abusive or obscene language" and "obscene gestures" in public places.The ordinance proscribes such conduct when the intent is to cause "public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm. . . . "
According to court documents, two police officers approached Huber in the parking lot of his business in the early morning hours of Dec. 11, 1988, to cite him for speeding.
When Officer Russell Roper asked Huber for his driver's license, Huber replied, "(---- ---), I'm not going to give it to you," according to the court. The request was repeated, Jackson wrote, and Huber continued to respond with four-letter words.
"During this time, Huber's voice was raised, he was using unspecified `hand actions,' and he stepped closer to Roper, talking directly in his face," Jackson wrote.
Huber was arrested and charged with speeding and disorderly conduct. He posted a bond and walked home. A jury acquitted him on the speeding charge but found him guilty of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and Huber appealed.
The court's opinion said constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech do not permit the government to punish the use of words or language outside of narrowly limited classes of speech, which include "the obscene, the libelous, fighting words and certain language that incites."
At issue in Huber's case was the "fighting words" category, the court said, because Logan City did not contend that Huber's choice of words was otherwise unprotected by the Constitution.
"In the context of determining what obscene expression is not protected by the federal Constitution, the United States Supreme Court has consistently concluded that this term (the word uttered by Huber) is not obscene," Jackson wrote.
Logan's ordinance, "far from being narrowly drawn," applies to all harsh, insulting words that recklessly create a risk of inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, the judge said.