Public profanity or drunkenness
Jerimiah Johnson was tailgating in the grove prior to the Alabama game. Not far from him was a tent with a bunch of Alabama fans. The Alabama fans were having a good time celebrating their team’s win over USC on opening day and their Number 1 status in both the sportswriters and coaches polls. They were, of course, doing a bit of mocking of the UMiss team. As the afternoon of tailgating wore on, Jerimiah became more and more irritated by the Alabama fans. He began shouting at the fans, calling Nick Saban a “fucking idiot” and loudly pointing out that UMiss had beaten Alabama in each of the two preceding seasons, he told the Alabama fans that the UMiss team would “kick their asses all the way back to Tuscaloosa. A crown began to gather. The Alabama fans, perhaps because they were heavily outnumbered turned their backs and did not respond, but Jerimiah kept it up. At this point UPD arrived and immediately arrested Jerimiah.
He was charged with violating Mississippi Code Annotated Section 97-29-47 which provides:
“Public profanity or drunkenness
If any person shall profanely swear or curse, or use vulgar and indecent language, or be drunk in any public place, in the presence of two (2) or more persons, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined not more than one hundred dollars ($100.00) or be imprisoned in the county jail not more than thirty (30) days or both.”
Jerimiah is upset with arrest and wants to know if there is a legal basis to challenge the charge. It’s hard to believe, but everyone seems to agree, including the UPD officers, that Jerimiah had not been drinking alcohol that afternoon. In particular, he wants to know if he can use the First Amendment as a defense, having heard about it when he took LA 201 – Introduction to Law as an elective.
You work as a paralegal for Jerimiah’s attorney. The attorney has asked you to do the legal analysis – and the legal research necessary to perform that analysis – and report back to her in memo form using IRAC structure.
You are looking for specific case law that either (1) interprets this statute or (2) deals with the First Amendment issue raised by this scenario or (3) does both 1 and 2. It is unlikely that you can do the analysis here with just one case. You cannot answer the question posed by the attorney using only secondary sources, so don’t rely on online encyclopedias, Findlaw, attorney websites, attorney blogs, etc. Even if you use a secondary source to assist in understanding the issues or locate relevant cases, you are expected to read, analyze, and apply the primary source of applicable law yourself.
The outline for the research paper is attached and should be the guide for the paper.
