{"id":11477,"date":"2007-08-19T19:39:31","date_gmt":"2007-08-20T02:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/08\/19\/freedom-of-political-expression-not-quite-dead-yet.html"},"modified":"2007-08-19T19:39:31","modified_gmt":"2007-08-20T02:39:31","slug":"freedom_of_political_expr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/19\/freedom_of_political_expr.html","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Political Expression not quite dead yet"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Feds have settled with a couple who, in 2004, were handcuffed and ejected from public property for the audacity <\/em>of showing up in anti-Bush t-shirts at a Bush speech.  They sued the Secret Service (which had directed the arrests), and have settled the suit for $80K<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, were handcuffed and removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol, where Bush gave a speech. A judge dismissed trespassing charges against them, and an order closing the case was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.<\/p>\n

“This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment,” said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia. “As a result of the Ranks’ courageous stand, public officials will think twice before they eject peaceful protesters from public events for exercising their right to dissent.”<\/p>\n

[…] The front of the Ranks’ homemade T-shirts bore the international symbol for “no” superimposed over the word “Bush.” The back of Nicole Rank’s T-shirt said “Love America, Hate Bush.” On the back of Jeffery Rank’s T-shirt was the message “Regime Change Starts at Home.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The White House made it clear that they were settling only as a favor to the poor couple.<\/p>\n

\n

White House spokesman Blair Jones said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

“The parties understand that this settlement is a compromise of disputed claims to avoid the expenses and risks of litigation and is not an admission of fault, liability, or wrongful conduct,” Jones said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

An earlier ACLU article on the case is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Feds have settled with a couple who, in 2004, were handcuffed and ejected from public property for the audacity of showing up in anti-Bush t-shirts at a Bush speech. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5278,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/13\/bush_at_the_pod.html","url_meta":{"origin":11477,"position":0},"title":"Bush at the podium","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Apr-04 7:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Good speech, bad press conference. Occasional moments -- when he got angry and forceful -- when it clicked. A lot of the time, though, it was rambling and hesitant and...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5466,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/03\/07\/kerrying_the_me.html","url_meta":{"origin":11477,"position":1},"title":"Kerrying the message on defense policy","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Mar-04 8:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting analysis of an interesting John Kerry speech on defense and foreign policy. Worth reading. There are aspects of it that certainly sound pretty good. And aspects that sound...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6377,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/13\/ill_say_this_fo.html","url_meta":{"origin":11477,"position":2},"title":"I’ll say this for The Onion …","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Sep-04 9:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"They have managed to find the worst snapshots of both Bush and Kerry and posted them together on the same page. Most news sources (or book covers) zero in on...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5669,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/27\/perhaps_hed_sup.html","url_meta":{"origin":11477,"position":3},"title":"Perhaps he’d support a Free Speech Zone approach","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Jan-04 12:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In defense of \"freedom of speech,\" Al Franken body-slammed a heckler from behind and threw him to the ground at a New Hampshire Dean campaign stop. \"I got down low...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8553,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/10\/13\/heres_something.html","url_meta":{"origin":11477,"position":4},"title":"Here’s something to boost the tourist trade","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Oct-05 9:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"Washington, DC: Drink a glass of wine with dinner, go to jail. Yup. Arrested, handcuffed, and tossed in the clink with a 0.03 Breathlyzer result. 0.03. And the cops note...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6482,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/26\/for_better_or_v.html","url_meta":{"origin":11477,"position":5},"title":"For better or verse","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Aug-04 3:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lord has a way of revealing those of us who really know him, and those that don't! Think about it! Kerry gave a big speech last week about how...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}