High court to consider if you have a right to honk your horn

Helen Immell is no lawyer. Yet, in in a few months, she'll be in front of the state Supreme Court arguing for her right to speak freely with her car honk.

Reporter Diana Hefley writes in today's Herald:

Helen Immelt contends that the county trampled on her First Amendment rights when she was arrested in 2006 for honking her horn at her Monroe-area neighbors. Immelt was sentenced to 10 days in jail for violating the county's noise ordinance after a three-day trial in Evergreen District Court.

She fought the conviction but the state Court of Appeals in June upheld the decision.

The court ruled that the First Amendment didn't given Immelt the right to lay on her car horn for 10 minutes on a Saturday morning in front of a neighbor's house or honk at another neighbor after she was warned by police she was out of line.

Immelt was accused of honking at neighbors because she was ticked off that they complained to the homeowner's association about the chickens she had roosting in her back yard.

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