Meanwhile:

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/a...earingMan.html

You misunderstand the First Amendment. You have a fundamental right to express your opinion. However, if 99% of the world calls you a jerk because of your expression of your right, you don't have a complaint as they are also expressing their fundamental right. There is no First amendment right to say what one wants to say without being called names or otherwise being criticized for what was said.

Exactly - so many people miss this part.

The First Amendment gives you a right to be an a-hole. It also gives me the right to call you an a-hole.

On a mailing list I run this comes up often. People complain when criticized for saying something stupid. They complain that they can say what they want - and they can. But folks get to say what they want in response.

So if one of the other passengers had told the OP to shut the F up then that would have been totally cool. The FA could have said it as well and while it's against policy it wouldn't have been illegal.

While not conceding that the OP's incident raises any First Amendment issues, I think that perhaps COHEN v. CALIFORNIA, 403 U.S. 15 (1971), is a more appropriate case.

After all, Cohen actually decided the criminality of the same word uttered by the OP. The issue in Roth was an obscenity conviction for having mailed dirty pictures.

There is no inherent right to swear on an aircraft. It's not the particular incident, but the idea that one can "abuse" a fundamental right that I find odd.

The problem is the FA didn't express an opinion. She enlisted the authority of the state to act against the person. THAT is the offense. Lacking the FAs side of the story, if the only complaint was that he swore, the FAs actions in calling police and calling it a security threat was WAY out of line.

Roth is an obscenity case. Profanity is not the same thing as obscenity. Using the "F" word is not obscenity per se. See Cohen v. California.

Not only in the voting patterns, but also in the necks.

You're right - in fact, there's no inherent right to even speak at all on an aircraft. Airlines are free to require that passengers be silent for the duration of the flight.

It is important to note, however, that a state actor (such as a police officer) cannot tell you to shut up.

My pet peeve: assuming that others know the same things you know. They don't; get used to it.

If you are posting here, you know airport delays are a fact of life. The fact that you cursed in a public setting makes you deserving of whatever you got from the police. Frankly, if I had been there, I would have asked you to be quiet.

I applaud the FA and hope you are banned from future AA flights. You can bet there is a record in your file.

I wasn't there, of course, to hear how he said his "obscentity". But some words, have become part of "normal" speech. Stand on a street corner in any major city, and listen to how many "obscene" words you hear--you would think that everyone is using them.
Assuming that the op really only used f*ck in a non offensive way, the fa blew the situation out of proportion, IMHO.
[PS: There is a clothing company, I think, whose name is ....; would a company, just a few years ago, every have taken a name like that?--the times are a changin!]

Ooh, what airline is that? I always get "the talker" next to me. "I'm sorry, sir, I'd love to hear about your colon operation, but this is the non-talking section."

Mike

Hey, back off. Be nice. You have a right to your opinion, but telling her she should be banned from further flights is out of line.

Wow, I feel bad for you! I'll admit that you made a mistake by swearing, BUT we're all human. The flight attendant shouldn't have gone over the line and called the police on you just because of that. She should have agreed with you, or at the very most, given you a warning -- but bringing police into it? C'mon.

At least you didn't get arrested or anything... and wow I didn't realize swearing in VA is a misdeamor! Meaning if I'm talking with my friends and drop the F-bomb, I'm doing a misdeamor?

I laughed out aloud when I read the "starting a riot" part. You have a right to complain to the gate agent -- you paid for the flight, you're their customer, and the customer comes first.

Sorry you had to go through this ordeal.

Andrew