page_title: Profanity
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Profanity / Legality / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: "No Swearing" sign along Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
context_page_description: Profanity is socially offensive language, which may also be called cursing, cussing or swearing, cuss words, curse words, swear words, bad words, or expletives. Used in this sense, profanity is language that is generally considered by certain parts of a culture to be strongly impolite, rude, or offensive. It can show a debasement of someone or something, or be considered as an expression of strong feeling towards something.
  In its older, more literal sense, "profanity" refers to a lack of respect for things that are held to be sacred, which implies anything inspiring deserving of reverence, as well as behaviour showing similar disrespect or causing religious offense.
context_section_description: In the United States, courts have generally ruled that the government does not have the right to prosecute someone solely for the use of an expletive, which would be a violation of their right to free speech enshrined in the First Amendment. On the other hand, they have upheld convictions of people who used profanity to incite riots, harass people, or disturb the peace. In 2011, a North Carolina statute that made it illegal to use "indecent or profane language" in a "loud and boisterous manner" within earshot of two or more people on any public road or highway was struck down as unconstitutional. In 2015 the US city of Myrtle Beach passed an ordinance that makes profane language punishable with fines up to $500 and/or 30 days in jail. An amount of $22,000 was collected from these fines in 2017 alone.
caption: Local law in Virginia Beach prohibiting the use of profanity along the boardwalk of Atlantic Avenue.
exif: {}