DEL.ICIO.USUGA students challenge Athens noise ordinance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Two University of Georgia students claim a local noise ordinance unlawfully restricts the volume of their music, regardless of whether it’s played in the heart of Athens’ pulsing entertainment district or in a serene single-family subdivision.
Their lawyer argued Tuesday that a lawsuit filed by students Robert Manlove and William Hoffman should go forward because the ordinance violates the free-speech protections of the state Constitution.
But a county attorney countered that the students lacked standing to bring the suit. The ordinance, attorney Amy Gellins added, does not regulate speech, only conduct — the volume of the music being played.
The Athens-Clarke County ordinance prohibits shouting, singing and playing music if the sound can be heard from 300 feet at anytime or from 100 feet after 11 p.m. on weeknights and after midnight on the weekends.
The maximum penalty is a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
Manlove was threatened with a citation by a local police officer as he played music at a party in the parking lot at The Summit, an apartment complex with student housing, his lawyer, Charles Jones, told the state Supreme Court.
The students, Jones said, aren’t asking to be allowed to play their music as loud as they want. They just believe the noise ordinance should have the fewest restrictions as possible and be tailored to the characteristics of different areas of town, he said.
In his legal brief to the court, Jones said volume is to the artistic quality of music as light or shade is to paintings. “One would think it very strange indeed to hear Brahms’ Lullaby belted out at earsplitting intensity or to hear Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You/We Are Champions’ softly whispered,” he wrote.
The ordinance, Jones said, should not be so restrictive in Athens’ downtown music scene, which spawned bands such as R.E.M., the B-52s and Love Tractor.
During Tuesday’s arguments, a number of justices questioned whether the students could bring the lawsuit in the first place because they could not show they were actually harmed by the ordinance.
“How is this different from a case of riding around in their cars with their stereos blaring?” Justice Robert Benham asked.
Gellins, a senior county attorney, also noted that the students did not put in the trial record the actual ordinance that is being challenge.
Benham appeared to suggest this could be a fatal flaw in the litigation. “In the absence of filing the ordinance in the record, is there anything for the government to defend?” he asked Gellins.
The students are appealing a ruling by Clarke County Superior Court Judge David Sweat, who dismissed the suit. The judge found the students did not have an “unfettered right to generate sound at a volume of their choosing for their personal enjoyment without regard to whether a message is conveyed or whether there are consequences for others.”
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Comments
By Johnny
Jan 14, 2009 2:45 AM | Link to this
grrtch! I love it! I think we may have been neighbors at one point because the first year we lived in Athens we had to put up with that crap every night!! I love Elton John as much as the next person, but I don't want to hear Tiny Dancer blasted full volume at 3 a.m.! Kudos to you for dealing with it much longer!
By Wes
Jan 14, 2009 12:42 AM | Link to this
First of all you wrote a great peice but at the end you ruined it by 'get a life' after you wrote a book about your life and how you handled it back in your times.
So now on to why im really writing anything. All of the writers that are mad about actually journialism not being what they want {cough}CC{cought}. Okay i have heard and seen a lead article about 400 more police officers. We have heard about it for 3 months and guess what nothing has changed so different stories bring consumers back for other information.
These kids are test what our country was founded on. By this I am saying that they have a right to challenge laws and ordinances to make sure that everyones life is equal. Yes they have a right to play music and have a good time. When should you say enough is enough. Will everyone ever be satisfy? NO! There is no chance of that ever happening and as people change and mentallities change so should laws.
They are not stupid they are sticking up for what they believe. You have seen this before just in different terms 'politics.'
By so-so deaf
Jan 13, 2009 9:32 PM | Link to this
circle of life, young punks act the fool, we all been there, the punks got to keep it down, everybody should enjoy 24/7, old farts please give up the keys your endangering yourself, the ones you love, and more importantly the rest of us, tough ********your old and useless quit driving enjoy your golden yrs. WORD!
By dave
Jan 13, 2009 5:12 PM | Link to this
Typically the granting of a right to one means the taking of a right from another. Your rights end where my nose (or in this case my ear) begins. While these students may enjoy their music, they have no right to force me to listen to it and, in the case of modern stereos, to feel it. Some of these stereos can be heard and felt from a quarter mile away. It is offensive, especially when I am trying to enjoy some peace and quiet inside my home and one of these inconsiderate people drive by with their stereos blaring and thumping. I think my right to enjoy the peace and quiet of my own home trumps their right to listen to a blaring stereo.
By grrtch
Jan 13, 2009 5:07 PM | Link to this
I live smack dab in the middle of student-ville. when I bought this home, my neighbors were mostly townies, but as rents escalated, the townies found cheaper digs, making room for student renters to move into these properties that once were passed along to friends as carefully as one might pass along a rent controlled apt in NYC.
For 15 years I've coped with sleepless nights, disrespectful neighbors, noise, trash, vandalism... committed by neighbors who by daylight say, "please speak to me if I disturb you." but when it's 2am the night before I have an 8 a.m appointment, and they are literally baying at the moon.. and yes, I do mean literally howling, yelling, making as much noise as their drunk little hearts desire while they stumble home from the bars downtown, I am in no mood to dress, exit my home, and politely ask them to shut the eff up. On those occasions when I have, these same students who were so polite during the daytime are not nearly so receptive....
AND NOW THESE BINGE DRINKING BRATS ARE SUING FOR THE RIGHT TO CONTINUE CREATING DISORDER? NO! Their liberty to make noise STOPS as soon as they infringe on my liberty to rest peacefully in my home so that I may function the next day. Three cheers for the Honorable David Sweat!
by the way, I have frequented rock clubs for 20 years and continue to do so... I am also a rock writer, so don't anybody go saying I'm a stodgy geezer just cuz I want respite in my home. you wanna go make an unholy noise? do like the old Athenians did and whoop it up out in the country and in warehouses where nobody lives.. oh? no more warehouses? all gentrified? tough. get creative and make your own fun... just like the old Athenians did when live music venues were scarce -- unlike today. turning to the courts like this is puerile student populism. To Manlove and Hoffman: Feh! pay yer fine and get a life!
By CC
Jan 13, 2009 5:06 PM | Link to this
Really? This is the lead article on this website? REALLY?! How about an article about Shirley Franklin and her Police Chief ignoring out-of-control in-town crime? That means A LOT more to your ATLANTA readers than a story about a couple of knuckle-headed losers in Athens in trouble for playing their music too loud. Or is actual journalism too much to ask of the AJC these days?
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