Court Requires That Vulgar Criticism of Mayor Be Obscured, but Eventually Changes Course

From a press release by Daniel A. Horwitz (Horwitz Law, PLLC), who prevailed in the case; I’ve worked with him before and generally quite trust his work (plus I looked through the source material myself as well):

Following a multi-month prior restraint that forbade local citizen Glenn Whiting and his affiliated entity Liberty Property Services from displaying the message “Mayor Larry Eaton tells citizen FUCK you after Court said city violated law,” District Attorney Stephen Hatchett’s obscenity lawsuit against Liberty Property Services must be dismissed, McMinn County Circuit Court Judge J. Michael Sharp has ruled. A copy of the Circuit Court’s dismissal order is accessible here: https://horwitz.law/wp-content/uploads/Order-Regarding-Motion-to-Dismiss.pdf.

The case began with Stephen Hatchett—the District Attorney General for Tennessee’s 10th Judicial District—filing a Petition for a Temporary Restraining Order and Permanent Injunction seeking to forbid the display of the political message in question. Hatchett’s Petition asserted that the message met the legal definition of “obscenity” (it did not) and violated Tennessee campaign finance law (it did not). Afterward, the Circuit Court quickly issued a Temporary Restraining Order based on these dubious theories and ordered the message covered….

[But following a motion to dismiss,] [b]y order dated February 23, 2026, the Circuit Court agreed and dismissed D.A. Hatchett’s lawsuit.  “While this Court may find certain words painted by Mr. Whiting on the side of defendant Liberty Services building problematic or personally offensive, that is not the rule of law that this Court is required to follow[,]” Judge Sharp explained.

“This Court took an oath to follow the applicable law that the Court finds to be in effect at the time in question.  Based upon all of the case law set out above by the defendants, as well as other case law reviewed by this Court, the Court finds that the word painted on the side of the building by Mr. Whiting has been found to be protected speech by the United States Supreme Court. Thus, based upon the United States Supreme Court’s rulings, the political message Mr. Whiting painted on the side of the building is not constitutionally obscene.”

Nor did the statute violate any campaign finance law, the Court noted. “Therefore, the petition for temporary restraining order and permanent injunction as filed is dismissed,” the Court ordered.

A copy of the State’s Petition is here: https://horwitz.law/wp-content/uploads/Ex.-2—Petition-for-Temp-R.O.-and-Perm-Injunction.pdf

A copy of the Circuit Court’s TRO is here: https://horwitz.law/wp-content/uploads/Ex.-1—TRO.pdf

A copy of Liberty Property Services’ Motion to Dismiss is here: https://horwitz.law/wp-content/uploads/Liberty-Motion-to-Dismiss.pdf

A copy of the trial court’s dismissal order is here: https://horwitz.law/wp-content/uploads/Order-Regarding-Motion-to-Dismiss.pdf

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