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A Riverside woman who faces a criminal charge of swearing at John Wayne Airport is suing the county, Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona and two sheriff's deputies, alleging infringement of her free-speech rights. The federal lawsuit of Elizabeth Venable asks a judge to nullify an 'unconstitutional' county law that holds that Venable 'unlawfully commit(ed) a disorderly, obnoxious and indecent act.' Deputies told Venable, a 26-year-old graduate student at the University of California, Riverside, to be quiet after she used profanity in a conversation with a friend while she was near children at John Wayne Airport on Aug. 14, 2006. According to the lawsuit, one deputy wrote in his report that Venable responded, 'Is it against the (expletive) law to say (expletive)?' She was criminally charged, and now faces a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. Her arraignment is scheduled for March 22. John Eastman, a constitutional law professor at Chapman University in Orange, said Venable's federal lawsuit may not hold muster. 'Freedom of speech does not cover obscenities,' he said.
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