Question: Can anything be done about people who have offensive decor blatantly displayed on their vehicles? I have young children and frequently see vehicles with exaggerated male genitals displayed on window stickers or hung from rear bumpers, as well as offensive language or gestures displayed on rear windows or bumpers. I can appreciate the occasional double-entendre, a clever pun or colloquial wordplay and am not opposed to First Amendment rights, but there should be some kind of censorship, right?
Answer: Not necessarily.
In response to a complaint about obscene bumper stickers, the Honolulu Police Department told us previously that the city corporation counsel’s office has said, “It may be tasteless but it’s protected as free speech.”
This time we asked whether objects meant to replicate male testicles — known colloquially as “truck nuts” and usually displayed on trucks — were included in that category.
“You’re correct,” said HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu. “Citations are not issued for decals, bumper stickers, etc., that may be perceived as obscene or inappropriate. It’s considered protected speech.”
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
It turns out that “truck nuts” are commonly found across the country, and attempts to ban them and other perceived obscenities on motor vehicles in Florida, Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia so far have not succeeded.
However, there is a law in South Carolina — being challenged — that makes it illegal to affix or attach to a motor vehicle “any sticker, decal, emblem, or other device containing obscene or indecent words, photographs, or depictions.”
Under that law, something would be considered obscene if, “taken as a whole, it describes, in a patently offensive way, as determined by contemporary community standards, sexual acts, excretory functions, or parts of the human body; and … taken as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
In 2011, South Carolina resident Virginia Tice, 65 at the time, was given a $445 ticket for displaying an “obscene accessory” — “truck nuts” — on her pickup truck.
She is challenging the ticket, but so far, after two years, a trial date still has not been set.
License Plates Are Different
Although there’s no law in Hawaii prohibiting obscene words or objects to be placed on a personal motor vehicle, the counties can prohibit the use of obscene or offensive words on the license plates they issue.
As we’ve reported previously, the justification is that what goes on license plates is not a matter of free speech, but a form of government communication.
Among the requested plates rejected previously and on the restricted list: "KSMYAS" or any variation of that, as well as the reverse lettering, "SAYMSK" and "SYMSK" because of how they appear when seen in a rearview mirror.
See is.gd/9cvv1H and is.gd/lKoqr3 for more information.
MAHALO
To the management and staff at Kalihi-Palama driver’s licensing/state ID station at 1199 Dillingham Blvd. We went to renew and apply for a state ID card and were processed in a timely manner. There were three people to help guide us into which line we were to stand. I also brought my collapsible stool because I always found there were never enough benches, but at this branch there were lots of places to sit. Great planning and management! — Grateful Senior Citizen
———
Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
