Where telephones are concerned, the Tar Heel State has a hangup about ribald jokes and salty language.
North Carolina prohibits the use of “any words or language of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious or indecent character, nature or connotation” in phone calls, according to N.C. General Statute 14-196.
The ban on blue language is likely unconstitutional and should unquestionably be lifted. A few four-letter words or dirty jokes fail to even approach the nebulous but high legal standard of obscenity.
A First Amendment Center analysis of state telephone harassment laws indicates that North Carolina is one of only a few states that try to prohibit legal speech.
“First Amendment issues sometimes arise involving telephone-harassment laws when the language of a statute is broad enough to be reasonably interpreted to cover protected speech,” writes Josh Tatum. “Nevertheless, most statutes use formal legal terms to describe communication the Supreme Court has permitted states to regulate, most commonly ‘obscene.'”
Raleigh lawmakers need to revise the telephone statute to regulate real harassment, not profanity. The Constitution and common sense demand it.
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