Obscenity checkpoints

[anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com]

The Maryville-Alcoa (TN) Daily Times, June 3, 1996.

`Calvin' Decals Catching Some Heat

Auto displays may be deemed `obscene'

By Justin Cress

Tennessee motorists might need to be more discriminating in the
future about the statement their automobiles are making.

A recent warning issued to a South Carolina woman for displaying
an "obscene" bumper sticker has caused some controversy about
that state's obscenity laws.

Decals portraying Calvin, of Bill Waterson's popular "Calvin and
Hobbes" comic strip, urinating on assorted objects of ridicule
are sweeping the Southeast.  The decals' increased visibility
prompts the question:  Is it obscentity or simply bad taste?

Patti Redden of McConnells, S.C., was surprised to find, while
being stopped at a highway patrol checkpoint, that the
reproduction displayed in her rear window was considered
offensive and illegal according to state ordinances.  Her version
depicted the letters "IRS" receiving the Calvinesque treatment.

Like South Carolina, Tennessee's obscenity laws prohibit the use
of "patently offensive" stickers, window-signs, or other markings
on a motor vehicle.  An opinion handed down in 1989 by the state
defines patently offensive as "that which goes substantially
beyond customary limits of candor in describing or representing
such matters," especially when pertaining to excretory functions.

Sharon Curtis-Flair, public information officer of the Tennessee
Attorney General's Office, expects to see renewed interest in the
state's laws.

"We went through this before in 1988 with (another questionable
bumper sticker)," said Curtis-Flair.  "The law has really not
been tested yet.  It's just never been challenged."  (...)