Judge: Urinating Calvin sticker is not obscenity

Web posted October 3, 1998

By Mark Pratt
Associated Press

GAFFNEY, S.C. -- A man ticketed for displaying a truck window decal of cartoon strip character Calvin urinating on a Ford logo was cleared of an obscenity charge Friday in Magistrate's Court.

The American Civil Liberties Union sought a jury trial for 49-year-old Wayne Isler, calling it a free-speech case. But after hearing arguments, Judge Timothy Ramsey threw out the charge and the $47 traffic ticket.

``The judge accepted the facts as presented by the state, and it was still not a violation of the law,'' defense lawyer Thomas F. McDow said.

According to state law, ``a sticker, decal, emblem or device is indecent when, taken as a whole, it describes in a patently offensive way, as determined by contemporary community standards, sexual acts, excretory functions or parts of the human body'' or ``lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.''

However, Mr. McDow said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled obscenity laws are limited to hard-core sexual conduct.

``The sticker may have been tasteless or tacky, but we all have the right to be tasteless and tacky on occasion,'' he said in court Friday.

Mr. Isler said he wasn't sure if the judge's ruling meant he could put the Calvin decal back on his 1980 GMC truck.

``I thank the Lord for a judge who believes in the constitution and what I fought for in Vietnam and what our fathers fought for,'' he said.

Mr. Isler was pulled over in May 1996 by Highway Patrol Trooper J.L. Godfrey, who noticed the decal.

At the time, Mr. Isler peeled off the decal and accepted the ticket. Later, however, he thought the penalty might violate his free-speech rights and called the ACLU.

``This was a silly application of an obscenity law to go after cartoons that are part of an in-joke with the NASCAR crowd,'' said Steven Bates, executive director of the state chapter of the ACLU.

Mr. Isler, who takes his red truck to auto shows, currently displays other decals, including Dale Earnhardt's No. 3, a Harley-Davidson logo and a Confederate flag.

During the trial, Mr. McDow showed pictures of the Venus de Milo and Michelangelo's David and asked if they, too, should be considered indecent under state law.

The trooper testified he considered David an obscene sculpture.

But Mr. McDow said because of the judge's ruling, police probably wouldn't be pulling people over for Calvin and similar decals.

``This judge has laid out the standards,'' Mr. McDow said.