Abortion foes say noise law is illegal [View All]

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http://www.cleveland.com/ohio/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/113783609856220.xml&coll=2

Cleveland ordinance hindering protests

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Cincinnati -

Two activists, Hugh Gaughan and Thomas Raddell, have asked a federal appeals court in Cincinnati to strike down the noise-pollution ordinance as a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.

Gaughan and Raddell's challenge contends that Cleveland used the law to block their efforts to play recordings of a 9-1-1 emergency call about a woman injured in an abortion...

It says "No person shall play any radio, music player, television, audio system or musical instrument in such a manner or at such volume as to annoy or disturb the quiet, comfort or repose of neighboring inhabitants . . ." ...

Former Cleveland Councilman Bill Patmon, the law's sponsor, said it goes back to a spring when he remembers neighborhoods quaking "in noise pollution from loud music. Music was shaking dishes in people's kitchen cabinets. You had boomboxes, sub-woofers, radios blasting."...