A food truck that’s been a regular at the Indiana Statehouse’s weekly market for about two years had its participation revoked over a slogan on the side of the vehicle, and one law professor thinks it brings First Amendment questions.
In an email to Smash Daddy’s Burgers, Fries, Etc., a state personnel department official said they’d “received several complaints regarding the slogan” and, as a result, had “been directed to cancel” two upcoming sessions.
First Amendment Concerns
Owner Scott Sims said the slogan — “you’ll love our meat in your mouth” — had rarely been an issue before. “I could count on one hand the complaints I’ve had over the last 20 years,” said Sims, who’s used the slogan both for a previous restaurant and since launching his truck at the end of 2023.
Kirollos Barsoum, communications director of the State Personnel Department, said “Participation of food trucks and other vendors at the Statehouse Market is by invitation and is at the discretion of the State Personnel Department. We routinely evaluate vendors based on a variety of operational and programmatic considerations, and we reserve the right to modify the vendor rotation or discontinue participation at any time.”
Zachary Cormier, an associate professor of law at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law, said there could be First Amendment implications. Offensiveness alone can’t be precluded by the government. For it to regulate that kind of speech, he said, it’d need to rise to the level of obscenity.
Original reporting: 93.1 WIBC (Indianapolis) — read the source article.
