Common sense prevailed in a circuit court in Everett, Wash., last week in a “freedom of speech” case that really was just ugly noise.
    The judge ruled against a woman’s claim that the First Amendment granted her the right to honk her car horn at 6 a.m., in some sort of neighborhood dispute.

The woman leaned on her horn in her neighbor’s driveway for as long as 10 continuous minutes, just before 6 a.m., left when police arrived, and returned later that morning and did it again. Charged with disturbing the peace, she twisted her defense into that of “freedom of expression.”

Protected expression has historically been applied to a variety of words, sounds, symbols, flags and other aural and visual phenomena. Valid “expressions” are those that have recognizable messages, even if not everyone shares the opinion expressed.

The Fifth Amendment is a necessary, and buffeted, bulwark of our free society.

Angry, irrational noise created by a mechanical devise is just that — noise.

The Everett judge was right to toss out the case. Driveway road rage under the mantle of the First Amendment demeans every valid instance of defending the right to free expression.