No Joke: Man Jailed for Laughing in Own Home

If you are having trouble viewing this message, click here to view it online

MARCH 20, 2013 No Joke: Man Jailed for Laughing in Own Home A Long Island man is facing 30 days in jail for laughing in his own home, according to The Huffington Post. Forty-two year-old Robert Schiavelli, who suffers from a mental disability, was cited twice for “disturbing the peace” due to his loud laughter. What was he laughing at? Allegedly, Schiavelli’s neighbor regularly calls him derogatory names and as a way of dealing with the taunts, Schiavelli laughs them off. Underlying most bad prosecutions are bad statutes. That is exactly the case here. Schiavelli was charged with acting “in such a manner as to annoy, disturb, interfere with, obstruct, or be offensive to others.” The U.S. Supreme Court has held that using “annoyance” as a factual basis for a criminal charge is unconstitutional. Coates v. Cincinnati held that the term “annoy” is unconstitutionally vague and is a violation of the First Amendment, stating: Conduct that annoys some people does not annoy others. Thus, the ordinance is vague not in the sense that it requires a person to conform his conduct to an imprecise but comprehensible normative standard, but rather in the sense that no standard of conduct is specified at all. As a result, “men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at [the] meaning” of annoyance. It would be different if Schiavelli were being cited under a neutral noise ordinance, but here, the law he is charged with having violated makes no mention of the level of noise. The local judge in the case has stated that he is “not so inclined” to dismiss it. Here, there is an unconstitutionally vague statute and harmless behavior. Common sense dictates that this is not something that should put someone in jail. When asked about the citations, Schiavelli said, “I didn’t know it was a crime to laugh out a window.” A very sensible answer. Do you still think you aren’t at risk of becoming a criminal? If you can go to jail for laughing in your own home, is there anything you can’t go to jail for? Are you outraged? Share this story and speak up online >> Frivolous Lawsuits Plague Subway’s "Footlong" Sandwich WATCH: Experts Answer Your Questions on Gun Control Response to Racially Charged Attacks Against Justice Scalia Is Osama bin Laden's Son-in-Law in U.S. Custody? VIDEO: The Right to Counsel - A Constitutional Protection   United States v. Windsor The Case on Marriage Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases that challenge the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8. In both cases, the court will consider the constitutionality of government policies that reflect traditional marriage—that is, marriage as a union between one man and one woman.  Read the rest of the story >>   The Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is the nation’s most broadly supported public policy organization. Heritage created the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies in 2001 to educate government officials, the media and the public about the Constitution, legal principles and how they affect public policy. The Heritage Foundation | 214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002 | 202.546.4400 | heritage.org