Obscenity Charges Dropped In Nashville Stick Figure Sex Case

NASHVILLE, TN — Crude drawings of stick figures engaged in sex acts are protected under the First Amendment, even when affixed to rear windows of cars, attorneys for Metro Nashville conceded Monday.

Lawyers for the police department agreed to drop the charges of displaying an obscene bumper sticker against Dustin Owens, who was ticketed in February for a rear-window sticker on his car, which is a parody of the common stick-figure family stickers. Under text reading "Making My Family," the sticker shows two figures — one male, one female — engaging in the act of, well, making a family. Click to see a photo of the sticker in question.

Owens' attorneys, Daniel Horwitz and David Hudson, filed a request for an injunction, arguing that the sticker failed to meet the obscenity standard set by the Supreme Court and that the $50 fine and the order to remove the sticker violated Owens' First Amendment rights.

Metro's attorneys agreed.

"Mr. Owens is correct that the bumper sticker at issue does not fit the criteria of 'obscene and patently offensive' as those terms are defined in Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-8-187 and under relevant First Amendment jurisprudence," they wrote in a court filing.

Metro will dismiss the ticket, issued a declaratory judgment the sticker "is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution" and have agreed to pay Owens' legal fees.

"The statute under which Mr. Owens was cited is facially unconstitutional. Hard-core censorship of this nature also has no place in a free society. We're ecstatic about this victory, and we appreciate Metro's prompt concession that the position taken by Mr. Owens' arresting officer was nakedly meritless," Horwitz, rather cheekily, said in a statement.

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