Lucas Charles Wilcox, 19, was cited for swearing in public and being a public nuisance after he yelled vulgarities at police who earlier gave him a ticket for drinking at a party.

Winona's swearing law is seldom enforced - one assistant city attorney couldn't provide an example of it ever being prosecuted. And it could present a constitutional quandary because of the way it is written, says one legal scholar.

'There could well be some First Amendment issues with an ordinance that broad,' said Steve Simon, a clinical professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.

The swearing law is one of Winona's oldest. Winona City Code 62.13 states, "No person shall, in the city, in any place of public resort or within the hearing of other persons, use any obscene language."

What the law considers obscene isn't specified. Police say Wilcox used several four-letter words."

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