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Judge rules honking for peace is protected form of free speech

Catherine Jun / Detroit News

DETROIT -- A U.S. District Court Judge ruled Thursday that the city of Ferndale violated the First Amendment right to free speech when it punished anti-war protestors on Woodward Avenue and the drivers who honked in their support.

District Judge Denise Page Hood, who read her opinion from the bench in Detroit, said that the city failed to show that the honking was excessively loud or posed a safety hazard and that its "message of peace" was also protected by the U.S. Constitution.

"For Ferndale to now claim that a honk is simply a honk is disingenuous," she said.

The ruling is a significant one, given that the city is the first in the state of Michigan to charge protestors who encourage honking, said Michael Steinberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which filed the lawsuit against the city in April on behalf of three protestors and two drivers who were ticketed or arrested.

In the summer of 2006, Ferndale police began cracking down on the sign-wielding protesters, saying that a city ordinance and state law prohibited motorists from honking a car horn unless they are warning others of danger. The peace vigil, organized every Monday night at the corner of Woodward and Nine Mile for years prior without any incident.