Honking Your Car Horn Isn’t Free Speech

If you learn anything today, I hope it’s this . . . your speech may be protected by the First Amendment, but your CAR’S VOICE is NOT. In 2017, a woman in California was cited for “unreasonable use of a vehicle horn” after she honked at least 14 times as she drove past a protest. She’s been fighting it in court ever since. She claims it’s “censoring her by refraining her from using the vehicle horn for expressive purposes.” Well, a federal appeals court did NOT agree, ruling that honking a car horn is NOT protected as free speech, because its primary purpose is to alert others of a traffic safety hazard, and not to be “expressive for First Amendment purposes.” But here’s the crazy part . . . the original citation was dismissed because the deputy didn’t show up in traffic court. So this woman has been fighting this car horn case for years for NOTHING. It’s unclear how much it has cost her in legal fees.