South carolina Your first .. May think on moving....

www.scstatehouse.gov...

S. 56

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Senator Ford
Document Path: l:\council\bills\ms\7049ahb09.docx

Introduced in the Senate on January 13, 2009
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Judiciary

Summary: Profanity

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date Body Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12/10/2008 Senate Prefiled
12/10/2008 Senate Referred to Committee on Judiciary
1/13/2009 Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-98
1/13/2009 Senate Referred to Committee on Judiciary SJ-98

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

12/10/2008

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 16-15-370 SO AS TO MAKE IT UNLAWFUL TO COMMUNICATE PROFANITY IN A PUBLIC FORUM OR PLACE OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION; BY ADDING SECTION 16-15-430 SO AS TO CREATE THE OFFENSE OF DISSEMINATING PROFANITY TO A MINOR AND PROVIDE A PENALTY FOR THE OFFENSE; TO AMEND SECTION 16-15-305, RELATING TO DISSEMINATING OBSCENITY, SO AS TO SPECIFY BOTH ORAL AND WRITTEN PUBLICATIONS; AND TO AMEND SECTION 16-15-375, RELATING TO DEFINITIONS FOR PURPOSES OF MORALITY AND DECENCY OFFENSES AGAINST MINORS, SO AS TO INCLUDE THE OFFENSE OF DISSEMINATING PROFANITY TO A MINOR.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Article 3, Chapter 15, Title 16 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 16-15-370. (A) It is unlawful for a person in a public forum or place of public accommodation wilfully and knowingly to publish orally or in writing, exhibit, or otherwise make available material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.

(B) A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than five years, or both."

SECTION 2. Article 3, Chapter 15, Title 16 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 16-15-430. (A) It is unlawful for a person to disseminate profanity to a minor if he wilfully and knowingly publishes orally or in writing, exhibits, or otherwise makes available material containing words, language, or actions of profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.

(B) A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than five years, or both."

SECTION 3. Section 16-15-305(A)(3) of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"(3) publishes orally or in writing, exhibits, or otherwise makes available anything obscene to any a group or individual; or"

SECTION 4. The first undesignated paragraph of Section 16-15-375 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"The following definitions apply to Section 16-15-385, disseminating or exhibiting to minors harmful material or performances; Section 16-15-387, employing a person under the age of eighteen years to appear in a state of sexually explicit nudity in a public place; Section 16-15-395, first degree sexual exploitation of a minor; Section 16-15-405, second degree sexual exploitation of a minor; Section 16-15-410, third degree sexual exploitation of a minor; Section 16-15-415, promoting prostitution of a minor; and Section 16-15-425, participating in prostitution of a minor; and Section 16-15-430, disseminating profanity to a minor."

SECTION 5. The repeal or amendment by this act of any law, whether temporary or permanent or civil or criminal, does not affect pending actions, rights, duties, or liabilities founded thereon, or alter, discharge, release or extinguish a

[edit on 24-3-2009 by Gemwolf]

/wave admendment 1 ... goodbye freedom of speech ...

Not sure how they are going to track forums though ...

George Carlin would have had a field day with this one! They really put everything including the kitchen sink into that piece of legislation didn't they? I think it's nice to try and protect children but by that standard, my dad would have never seen the light of day. Back when he would work on his old 72 Dodge he could let fly a stream of profanity that would peel the paint off the car. He said those were the "magic words" that kept the old car running.

[edit on 22-3-2009 by SheepleFlavored]

great as if i needed another reason to call up my pathetic senators and congressmen. i would hope that gov. sanford would vetoe a peice of totalitarian garbage like this.

this is utter bull crap. who decides whats profane?

"shat"
"crap"
"feces"
"excriment"
"poopy"

i would exspect better than nanny state garbage like this from this state.

Specifics where Convienietly left out it seems ... This # is getting hard to catch .. cause not only we have the bills now through congress.. House of Rep ... to scan through .. this is only on the State site .. 51 States. Begs to ask which ones havent we "seen" ?

This is absurd.
This will never pass. Like someone else asked - who decides which language is prohibited?
Is saying 'crap' going to get me slapped with a felony?

That is the REALLY stupid part. "No more than 5,000 dollars and a term of up to 5 years in jail or both."

They'd just have to toss me in jail. I'd call them every name in the book just to spite them.

This idea of Sen. Ford's isn't quite that unheard of.... I made a thread about this very thing a few months ago... it is insane.



www.abovetopsecret.com...


I just can't believe people are going along with this.

Five years and/or five thousand dollars. WOW this is unbelievable.

I can only assume this is a last ditch effort to save the economic distress of South Carolina.

It would not be a stretch to say thousands of citizens would be jailed and or fined.

South Carolina is a beautiful state with much to offer tourist. You can visit the sea shore and the mountains in a matter of hours.

I have been visiting the state for many years and have a grandson and his family residing there near Charleston.

The general attitude there is easy going, laid back and tolerant.

Getting back to saving the states economy it would be easy to arrest and fine offenders. Fine them five thousand dollars and sentence them to extreme community service.

The state could let go of many paid workers and use the offenders as free labor. This would work as I'm sure all ages with many levels of skill will be arrested.

Would this mean I have to stop teasing my grandson about how cute his butt is in his tight jeans?

Well you know... Some people's poor constitutions cant handle these horrible horrible words!

OH NOES! I hath fainted upon hearing such horrid musings leave thine voice box of vulgarity!


Some people need to really just grow some acorns!

reply to post by dizziedame


well they just changed the DUI laws here so that if you even look at a wine cooler and hop behind the wheel of the car they slam you with a $5000 ticket. yes the state is in bad economic waters. but passing bull crap laws like the DUI one and now this "potty mouth" bill is going to kill the one major thing this state has going for it... tourism.

who wants to vacation where you constantly have to be looking over your shoulder to make sure you dont wind up in jail?

Just because the words may be "unethical" does not mean they should be illegal...no matter what they are.

Many words spoken today considered to be "profanity" were not long ago. This also works vice versa.

A private institution should have the right to prohibit these things...but government has NO RIGHT.

Even if you were to despise the words that were to be outlawed...you have to bite the bullet and go against it.

Once you let something like this slide...you open up a can of worms for more legislation and laws like it.

Defend the Constitution. This is what has given us the freedoms we have...letting things slide because of our own personal bias will only come to bite you back as the same thing could happen to you that you don't agree with.

Ok so far every word spoken in this thread is offensive including mine.
second line.

The real problem I have with this piece-o-crap proposal is that it shows UTTER CONTEMPT (once a-fin-gain) for our "inalienable" rights granted by that goddamned piece of paper.

It seems the elitist scumbags actually HATE their constituents and feel that they need to dictate with an iron fist how we behave and think. Oh, and that our money is theirs by... I don't know, divine providence? Screw 'em.

(figures his last two words will probably justify a ticket. Just like that movie Demolition Man.)

Ahhh...

This must be an attempt for a statewide Cuss Bucket...

That State Senator must have gotten this idea after shelling out a few bucks at the local watering hole.

While this bill looks destined to fail, remember that our fine elected are searching for more new ways to generate revenue.

I just hope Virginia doesn't try the same...

Good luck SC.

This bill isn't going anywhere.

It has been referred back to committee after it was read in congress. If they passed this bill there are a lot of reps. that wouldn't get reelected. Besides Sanford would veto it.

OMG OMG OMG

Better quick get all your cussing out of your system now before they ban Freedom Of Speech.

If you think that this is anything other than voiding the 1st Amendment; Drink your KoolAid NOW.

Even a nun in catholic schools might utter a FELONIOUS idiom.

Only upside might be that Ludicris and most gangsta rap would help subsidize inner cities in SC cities?

Parenthetically : You Are Sofa King We Todd Ed !

[edit on 3·22·09 by DrMattMaddix]

Huh...that's just...wow....words like retarded, ridiculous, moronic, etc. just can't be used to explain this.

To be fair, I can see where this can be a good thing. Hell, being a Marine, I have a foul mouth out of habit. I've been around old salty gunnys that practically almost reinvent the art of improvized cussing. That being said, I have a hard time watching myself and I let profanities slip out in the worst possible situations. Honestly, I like where this is going as I wouldn't want my kids to be around harsh language if it can be helped. Sometimes these words just happen to be dropped, it's human, it happens.

Now, the big problem there is, which is rather obvious, is the fact that they blew the punishment up to marshmellow puff man proportions. A felony? No less than a $5000 fine? Are you [profanity] kidding me?! Are they just getting their rocks off by making the american people get F'ed in the A over such trivial garbage as cussing in public? [Insert stream of profanity here.] C'mon you crazy politician [profanity], lighten up. A simple warning would suffice for like first time offenders. Multiple offenders, fine the hell out of them. [Insert yet another stream of profanity.]

Overall, it's got good intentions, but hey, the road to hell is paved with good intentions right? Try again you assclowns.

reply to post by Bldrvgr


!@#$% you Senator Ford. That's what I gots to say about that legislation. Think I might send him a nasty e-mail... I'm in that kinda mood..