Profane political sign prompts complaints

This edited image shows a profane political sign on Tower Road.

NACOGDOCHES -- For about a month, Constable Roger Dudley has driven past what is arguably the largest publicly displayed F-bomb in town.

The flag is hanging between two posts in the front yard of a home in the 600 block of Tower Road and spells out the obscenity -- complete with raised middle finger -- in a message sharply criticizing Democratic presidential Candidate Kamala Harris and anyone who chooses to vote for her.

"Years ago, just that word was a breach of the peace," Dudley said. "I don't know when the change took place."

Offensive or not, the flag and others like it are protected speech and aren't going anywhere.

"It's freedom of speech, and it's being trampled on," said a man who claims to be the flag's owner. "If anybody does their research, they'll come to that conclusion."

The man declined to identify himself. He said he'd been told to remove the sign and been threatened with fines and prosecution.

"So I got an attorney," he said. "Now it's pretty much up to the city."

The Daily Sentinel could not verify the man's claim about being threatened with fines and prosecution, but City of Nacogdoches officials have received complaints.

Robert Martin took his grievance about the Tower Road sign to city council on Sept. 13.

"The fact that the content is politically oriented is of no matter whatsoever," Martin said. "This would be applicable to any public display of signs or flags. The obscenity is in public view, only about a half-mile from the Boys & Girls Club and Mike Moses Elementary School."

Martin encouraged the council to consider an ordinance prohibiting the public display of obscenities.

The city does have ordinances restricting when and where political signs are placed as well as limiting their size -- but none specifically prohibits profanity.

Even if there were, recent legal cases suggest that enforcement could be a liability.

In July, a federal judge ruled that a Tennessee woman had a constitutional right to post her yard sign that read "F -- Em Both" after she was fined by the City of Lakeland for violating a local rule against obscene content on signs. The judge's order came after the city agreed to a settlement reimbursing both her fines and legal fees. Similar findings have been reached in Florida cases.

"Political speech is general granted the highest level of protection under the First Amendment," Nacogdoches City Attorney Jerry Baker said, adding that any liability created by a profanity ordinance would depend on its scope and how it's applied.

The flag displayed on Tower Road did not come from the Nacogdoches County Republican Party, Chairman Bradley Reynolds said.

"What we have are candidate-specific signs at our headquarters," Reynolds said. "The biggest thing that we've had are 4x4 Trump and Cruz signs."

The county GOP has largely moved away from smaller signs in recent years, Reynolds said.

"If you do see signs going up, it's by private individuals and not the party," Reynolds said.

City Councilman Chad Huckaby said profanity-laden yard signs are symptomatic of a steady decline in the level of discourse on the state and national political stage.

"I believe most of our residents would agree this kind of expression is an abuse of First Amendment rights and below the bar of common decency," he said.

Political signs and flags during presidential years are often as numerous as complaints about them being placed without permission or in public rights-of-way.

Many complaints are fielded by the county elections office despite the fact that it has no jurisdiction over them, said Vicki Wood, the county election administrator.

As Nov. 5 draws near, she said, complaints about signs have been not just about placement but their content.

"We do have people who are pushing limits, as we do with every presidential election," she said. "But there's really not anything we can do about it."

In addition to the sign's proximity to Mike Moses Elementary, the Nacogdoches High swim team practices at the Boys & Girls Club at the intersection of Tower Road and Park Street.

Carrie Scroggins, who coaches the swim team, said she had not received any complaints from parents regarding the sign.

"I hate that it is displayed in our community though," Scroggins said.

A small portion of children attending the Boys & Girls Club get there on Tower Road, CEO Steve Davidson said.

"About 90% of the families come off Park Street to the club," he said.

The man who said he owns the flag said neither his neighbors nor children on school buses passing by are learning anything new from his publicly posted statement.

"I went to all my neighbors before I put it up (to) tell them that I was putting it up," he said. "I can guarantee you, probably 80% of kids on that school bus know exactly what that word is and not because they learned it from my yard but because they learned it from their home. That's water on a duck's back to me."