California woman who was cited for honking loses her First Amendment case

Honking a car horn is not protected as free speech, the federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled.

The decision, filed Friday, was in the case of Susan Porter, an Oceanside woman who was cited for “unreasonable use of a vehicle horn” after she honked an estimated 14 times as she drove past a protest outside the office of Rep. Darrell Issa in 2017.

Though the citation was dismissed because the sheriff’s deputy who issued it did not show up in traffic court, Porter filed a civil suit in 2018 alleging that her subsequent fear of again being cited resulted in her “censoring herself by refraining from using her vehicle horn for expressive purposes, including but not limited to expressing support for political protests, rallies, or demonstrations.”

She sought to have declared unlawful the enforcement of Vehicle Code section 27001 against what she calls “expressive honking,” which she argued falls under First Amendment protections.

Section 27001 states that a driver shall use the horn to “insure safe operation,” and that it “shall not otherwise be used, except as a theft alarm system.”

A district court entered summary judgment in favor of the state, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last week affirmed that decision.

A witness for the state, California Highway Patrol Sgt. William Beck, testified that  “when a vehicle horn is used improperly, it can create a dangerous situation by startling or distracting drivers” and that the “horn’s usefulness as a warning device would be diminished” if officers were unable to cite drivers for improper use.

Beck was not able to give an example of a specific accident or collision caused by the use of a vehicle horn.

The appeals court agreed that “at least some of the honking prohibited by Section 27001 is expressive for First Amendment purposes” and that Porter’s “expressive activity is being chilled.” The majority opinion, however, upheld the regulation concerning horn use, saying it “applies evenhandedly to all who wish to use a horn when a safety hazard is not present” and that it is “narrowly tailored to further California’s substantial interest in traffic safety.”

In her dissent, Judge Marsha Berzon advocated prohibiting the enforcement of Section 27001 against “political protest honking,” though she conceded applying the injunction to “expressive” honking would be too vague to be enforceable.

The protest outside the Vista office of Republican congressman Issa was part of a wide-ranging event held there every Tuesday for more than a year, starting a few weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration. It drew demonstrators both for and against Trump, Issa and Republican policies.