-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: April 15, 2007 12:18:35 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Bush Claims Right to Have Those Who Disagree with Him
Removed from His Presence
can eject protesters
Brief defends pair's ouster from president's talk
By Ann Imse
Rocky Mountain News, April 13, 2007
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/
0,1299,DRMN_15_5481779,00.htmlLawyers argue Bush
Lawyers in Denver are arguing that President Bush has the right to
remove from an audience people who disagree with him.
The case involves two people ejected from a taxpayer-funded Bush
speech two years ago.
Leslie Weise and Alex Young were removed from a Bush address on
Social Security after a staffer for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.,
pointed them out as suspicious because they had arrived in a car
with an anti-war bumper sticker.
Weise and Young sued, arguing that the ouster violated their First
Amendment right to free speech.
Attorneys for Michael Casper and Jay Klinkerman, who were involved
in removing them, have filed an appeals brief saying the ouster was
legal.
"The president's right to control his own message includes the
right to exclude people expressing discordant viewpoints from the
audience," states the brief, filed by attorneys Sean Gallagher,
Dugan Bliss and others representing Casper and Klinkerman.
The White House declined comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit. Three
White House staffers have also been sued in the case for ordering
the ouster.
Gallagher said the White House was not involved in developing the
argument.
The appeal centers on "whose speech is at issue -- the president's
or the plaintiffs'?" the brief says.
Weise responded, "My read of the Constitution does not give the
president free speech rights greater than the citizens he serves."
Martha Tierney, attorney for Weise and Young, described the
argument as "pretty amazing." She said it claims her clients' mere
attendance forced the government to adopt their views.
Casper's attorneys cited a case, Sistrunk vs. City of Strongsville,
involving the first President Bush. There, an appeals court
supported the removal of a person with a Bill Clinton button from
an event organized by the Republican Party.
The speech organizers were trying to "convey a pro-Bush message to
the media by use of pro-Bush speakers and largely pro-Bush
attendees," they quote the case. They wanted to 'send the media a
message' that Bush would win; to convey the message that
'Strongsville Trusts George Bush.' "
But Tierney said that the cited case doesn't apply because it was a
Republican Party event, "and a private party can control speech."
The Denver speech was open to the public and paid for by taxpayers,
she said.
If the argument that the government can exclude people based on
their views is supported by the appeals court, "it guts the First
Amendment," Tierney said.
Alan Chen, a University of Denver law professor, agreed.
"The whole purpose is to protect dissenters from the government,"
he said. "That's an inherent element of the democratic process."
Weise added, "Perhaps if the president and his team were more
willing to engage differing viewpoints we wouldn't have the
catastrophic and unnecessary loss of life in the wars we are still
fighting, not to mention the astronomical costs they have burdened
us taxpayers with."
See what's free at AOL.com.
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