Has anyone ever used profanity or vulgarity on their gravestone epitaph? What are some examples? Can you say anything on a gravestone epitaph? Is this protected under our first amendment right?
I don’t know about the legality or that sort of thing, but there is definitely one example:
From the Snopes article:
The First Amendment doesn’t cover a cemetary lot - it’s private property. Besides which, I would imagine that obscenity laws would also be relevant.
Even if it were protected under the First Amendment, nobody can force a stonecutter to carve words he finds objectionable.
Well, it’d presumably be covered under the first ammendment in the sense that it would be unconstitutional to pass a law forbidding certain words on a gravestone. And presumably, as stated, a business can choose to carve only whatever gravestones it likes.
The Roman Catholic church reviews all grave markers that are placed in their cemeteries before they go in.
My S-I-L wanted a beer bottle on my brother’s marker. A beer bottle, hardly profane, but an odd enough request that she got two calls from the church. The first was an “Are you sure?” When she said yes, the rep told her he would get back to her. And about two weeks later she got one more “Are you sure?” from a bishop and when she said yes again, she got the OK. :rolleyes:
This was about three years ago.