Honk if you like justice

If something happens to Obama’s first choice for the Supreme Court, I know exactly who he should turn to:

That would be the Washington state judge who displayed a burst of common sense not always seen in America’s courtrooms.

Snohomish County Superior Court judge Richard Thorpe ruled that honking a car horn is not free speech.

I’m not sure which legal precedent he cited, but I would lean toward one that defined “speech” as actual talking or writing. That would be as opposed to, say, honking a horn or giving someone the finger or mooning someone (other quaint activities that are occasionally defined as “speech”).

The case dealt with a woman who was cheesed off at her neighbor for complaining about, of all things, her chickens. (Why don’t we have cases like that in our neck of the woods?)

So the chicken lady retaliated by parking in front of this guy’s house one day before 6 a.m. and leaning on her car horn for 10 full minutes. I guess she though that would make him more reasonable.

Well, it didn’t. He called The Man, and she got a ticket after another bout of horn honking two hours later. (I’m starting to think she’s a nut. Maybe she inhaled too much chicken dung dust. That’s some nasty stuff.)

Anyhow, chicken lady claimed free speech, but Judge Thorpe shot her down with a ruling that should go down in history (or at least be blogged about):

“Horn honking which is done to annoy or harass others is not speech.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes couldn’t have put it any better.