General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There MUST be a law against donning bumper stickers so offensive, no, I don't have pix! [View all]onenote
(46,147 posts)verbal description or narrative account of sexual conduct. Or put another way, what is the point of the requirement of a "detailed and explicit" "description or narrative account" if it can apply to a single word?
It is a fundamental rule of statutory construction that all the words in a statute be given their ordinary meaning. Your reading makes the phrase "detailed and explicit" unnecessary. Explicit would be enough. And what is the point of requiring a "description or narrative account" if it can apply to a single word rather than a detailed and explicit description of what that word means.
Finally, in Cohen v. California case in which the SCOTUS overturned the conviction of a person who was charged with violating a ban on offensive conduct by wearing in a public place a jacket emblazoned with the words "Fuck the Draft". Among other things, the court pointed out that in order to be regulated under the limited exceptions to the First Amendment applicable to indecent or obscene speech, the speech must be in some sense "erotic." This same principle is why "indecent" speech on broadcast television must not consist of a single utterance of the word "fuck" or even the repeated use of the word "fuck" in a movie such as Saving Private Ryan. The result would be no different if a character in Saving Private Ryan uttered the word "cocksucker" instead of "fuck" as an epithet.