Massachusetts Rep. Democrat Daniel J. Hunt is driving a bill that would essentially make it illegal to call someone a “bitch” as part of his act “regarding the use of offensive words.”
Hunt — a Democrat — introduced a bill in May that would criminalize calling someone a “bitch” in an insulting manner.
The act states:
A person who uses the word “bitch” directed at another person to accost, annoy, degrade or demean the other person shall be considered to be a disorderly person in violation of this section, and shall be subject to the penalties provided in subsections (a) and (b). A violation of this subsection may be reported by the person to whom the offensive language was directed at or by any witness to such incident.
The penalties include a $150 fine for the first violation and $200 plus possible jail time for any offenses that follow, according to the Boston Herald.
Hunt said he introduced the legislation, which is slated to go before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary on Tuesday, per a constituent’s request.
“Any time a constituent approaches me with something that is of concern to them, I follow through with it,” Hunt told the Boston Herald.
“In this instance, someone asked me to file a bill that they deemed was important and I thought it was a good exercise to let that bill go through the process,” he added.
However, critics, such as Cambridge civil-rights attorney Harvey Silverglate, say the bill would never hold up in court.
“If it’s challenged in court, it will take minutes for a judge to see through it,” Silverglate said, according to the Herald.
“It doesn’t have a prayer of surviving, so why should the Legislature even burden us — the citizens, the press and the courts — why would they burden us with this nonsense? Surely they must have more important things to do,” he continued.
“This is just the latest futile effort but the word police to control what other people say and indirectly control what they think,” he said.
“Beacon Hill Democrats like @repdanhunt are fearlessly taking on the biggest problems facing the commonwealth,” the Massachusetts GOP tweeted the day before the Judiciary Committee’s Tuesday hearing: