Loud and proud: pump up the volume, legally?

• Author: Root, Damon
• Position: Citings - Richard T. Catalano's right to play loud music from his car stereo - Brief article

DOES THE FIRST Amendment protect your right to play loud music from a car stereo? The Florida Supreme Court will take up that question this year when it hears oral arguments in the case of State v. Catalano. At issue is a $73.50 ticket issued to Pinellas County attorney Richard T. Catalano on February 13, 2007, for violating a state law that makes it a crime to "amplify the sound produced by a radio, tape player, or other mechanical soundmaking device or instrument from within the motor vehicle" so that the sound is "plainly audible at a distance of 25 feet or more."

Catalano, who is representing himself in court, argues that the law "is unconstitutionally vague, overbroad, virtually guarantees arbitrary enforcement...