Federal appeals court rules “Fuck the Police” T-shirt, worn at Ohio county fair, is protected speech

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A federal court ruled in favor of a man who was arrested at an Ohio county fair in 2016 for wearing a shirt with a profane, anti-police statement, concluding a long legal battle and clarifying the difference between vulgar speech and “fighting words.”

Key Players

Michael Wood, who wore the shirt, said he was the victim of multiple constitutional violations.

Dean Blair, the executive director of the Clark County Fairgrounds, holds a county fair that draws thousands in the southwestern part of the state every year. In 2016, the turnout was down because of a heat wave, but the fair still reported 73,000 attendees, the Daily Mail reported.  

Sergeant Chad Eubanks and deputies Jacob Shaw, Mario Troutman, Matthew Yates, Joseph Johnson, and Cherish Steiger are members of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, which polices a county with a population of about 136,000.

U.S. Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush, is on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Further Details

A predominantly rural county, Clark leans moderately conservative. On July 29, 2016, Wood wore a shirt that read “Fuck the Police” to the county fair. He received several comments, including one person “who made a profane gesture at him,” Gibbons’s opinion stated. 

After the sheriff’s office complained about the shirt, Shaw, Troutman, and Yates arrived at the scene and confronted Wood. He did not initially give his name, but changed his shirt. 

But when Blair and the rest of the officers arrived, Blair asked Wood to leave the fairgrounds because he was “not welcome.” Per the Daily Mail, Wood asked Blair if he was committing a crime or being detained, but he quickly agreed to leave if his three-dollar entrance fee were refunded, at which point Blair gave him five dollars and told him to “keep the change.” 

Wood asked Blair if he realized that the shirt was “constitutionally protected,” to which Blair replied, “Not in my home.” As Blair and the officers escorted Wood off the premises, on video, Wood berated them, asking whether they had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. 

As the exchange grew more heated, Wood was arrested for disorderly conduct and obstructing official business, but both charges were later dropped by the local prosecutor. Wood subsequently filed a lawsuit for false arrest and retaliation, asserting his constitutional rights had been violated, The Hill reported. 

On May 8, 2020, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rose, who had also been nominated by former President George W. Bush, granted summary judgment to the police, ruling the officers had qualified immunity, The Associated Press reported. 

Per the National Conference of State Legislatures, qualified immunity, a legal doctrine developed through court precedent, “protects state and local officials, including law enforcement officers, from individual liability unless the official violated a clearly established constitutional right.” Believing the officers had indeed violated the First Amendment, Wood appealed the District Court’s decision to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case was heard by a three-judge panel for which Gibbons wrote the opinion on the panel’s behalf.

Outcome 

Federal appeals judge overturns dismissal of lawsuit

On Feb. 8, 2022, the appellate judges ruled that the officers did not have probable cause to arrest Wood, reversing the summary judgment. 

“Because there was no probable cause to arrest Wood for his conduct,” Gibbons wrote, “and because Wood’s right to be free from arrest was clearly established, the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity. … In the absence of any evidence that Wood was unreasonably loud, there was no probable cause to arrest Wood for his profanities alone.”

Under Ohio’s disorderly conduct statute, Gibbons wrote, “Profanity alone is insufficient to constitute fighting words.”

Ben Hunt, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, disapproved of the ruling, saying, “The deputies in this case acted reasonably and appropriately after Mr. Wood went on a hostile, profanity-laced tirade in the middle of the Clark County Fair.”

David Carey, deputy legal director for the Ohio branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, which provided amicus support for Wood, told The Hill the ruling “confirms that the First Amendment protects. people’s right to criticize their government, including law enforcement, regardless of whether they go about it politely.”Judge Gibbons’s decision remanded the case to the district court for a new hearing. Two weeks later, the police officers filed a petition for a review en banc by the full Sixth Circuit Court, which was denied on March 11, 2022. The case remained in district court, awaiting a new trial, as of June 18, 2022.