Comments on: You can voice your 1st Amendment rights in D.C., just as long as you’re QUIET!!!!

By: RumorsDaily

RumorsDaily — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:46:39 +0000

In general if the law specifies between commercial and non-commercial speech, favoring commercial speech, it will be struck down in court.

Laws that limit first amendment protected speech (and political protest speech most certainly falls into that category) must be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest. While there may be a compelling government interest in not having people screaming outside your bedroom window at 4am, it certainly isn’t narrowly tailored if it allows your friendly neighborhood liquor dealer to do it but not your political protesters.

Go, go legal system!

By: ljames

ljames — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:27:44 +0000

30dBA = Rice Krispies popping and crackling … and snapping….though not in that order.

By: dcguy

dcguy — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:19:05 +0000

While the H Street situation may have spurred this legislation, there are other cases throughout the city where this has become a nuisance.

Kudos to the Councilmembers who have suipported the taxpaying residents of the city.

By: amandaa

amandaa — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:34:33 +0000

i have feeling this might be about an issue around the area of H street (ward 6). i read an article recently that new homeowners in that neighborhood were going nuts b/c of street preachers on H street, who would go on and on with bullhorns at every hour of the day, sometimes directly insulting the new, mostly white, arrivals. local officials/city council members said they were powerless to do anything about it at that time. this may well be a response.

By: mikelicht

mikelicht — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:48:07 +0000

I believe the latest version of the bill allows sound to be 10dB greater than ambient noise. Of course the bill doesn’t specify the frequency or frequencies to be sampled, the time frame or type of measurement — peak, averaging? DC Council staff tell me the bill conforms to language of other DC noise laws; now you know why they aren’t being enforced.

By: » chilling effects webjedi.net

» chilling effects webjedi.net — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:20:26 +0000

[...] I wrote a MetBlog post this morning detailing a noise ordinance being passed to limit protests in D.C., I see this from one of of the [...]

By: Don

Don — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:22:47 +0000

80db at 50 feet ain’t terribly unreasonable, though I’d be curious to know how they define ‘residential.’ How close does there have to be a residence before it’s residential? What about mixed-use properties (which are all the rage) where the ground level is all commercial but floors 2+ have living space?

By: monica

monica — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:15:22 +0000

I live in Dupont Circle and can appreciate where this is coming from.

I can’t tell you how often I’m kept awake by weekend protesters yelling, banging and generally making a lot of noise — either early in the morning or late at night.

I might want to sleep in on a Saturday and not have to listen to the boom boom boom of drums and the "wah wah wah" of a speech complete with feedback from a subpar sound system at 8am. At that point someone’s freedom of speech is clearly wrestling with my freedom to rest.

I’m all for freedom of speech — so long as it occurs on the National Mall or some other nonresidential area and/or between the hours of 10 – 6:00pm.