The First Amendment rights of anti-war demonstrators have not been violated by the city's decision to block them from marching past the United Nations on Saturday, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Citing "this time of heightened security," U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones said the city's need to protect the public outweighs the right of demonstrators to proceed with plans to march past the UN.
From Jimmy Breslin (via Atrios):
Free speech comes from Madison and Jefferson and Paine and people went to jail over it and were shot in wars to protect it. You can see how precious, how fragile such a blessing is by the way in which it is embroiled and disputed and can be threatened by the most modest of opponents.
During a break, I went up to one severely dressed young man and he identified himself as Andrew O’Toole of the United States Attorney’s office. He was there to make a statement or file something to remind the court that the UN was the responsibility of the city. He was pleasant. The people who sent him over did not tell him to say “Ashcroft.” He didn’t have to. He was at the city’s table and a United State Marshal who had arrived with him and was holding a hand radio stood at the door.
*****Congress shall make no law respecting an
From funding religion, aka "faith-based organizations", to creating "First Amendment zones" to gutting the Freedom of Information Act...this has been one busy admistration.