The following MSNBC news video is about a legal decision handed down by the Florida Supreme Court. It is in the area of free speech. The video appeared on the December 13, 2012 edition of the NBC Nightly News.
A man had been cited for playing loud music while driving his car down the road. One of the funny things about this story is what the motorist was playing - Justin Timberlake. Generally, local governments can set their own decibel levels for how loud you can play music. But music in a car may give rise to exceptions.
In this case, the Florida Supreme Court now says that loud music does fall under the umbrella of free-speech rights when you are playing the music in your car. It is not totally clear how expansive this decision is. But in this case, the Clearwater, Florida plaintiff challenged a law that said you could not play music in your car loud enough for people only 25 feet away to plainly hear it. That was considered too harsh of an ordinance by the Supreme Court. Surely, the government can place some limitations on noise. But 25 feet was considered entirely too invasive on free speech to this court.
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