Lawsuit Criticizes Secret Service - Anti-Bush Protesters Are Kept at Bay

[cthrumatrix]

Lawsuit Criticizes Secret Service
Anti-Bush Protesters Are Kept at Bay, Advocacy Groups Say

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 24, 2003; Page A27


The Secret Service has helped keep Bush administration critics far from the center stage -- and television cameras -- at rallies and events where President Bush and high-ranking federal officials appeared, according to a federal lawsuit filed yesterday.

In more than a dozen public events nationwide in the past two years, the Secret Service has instructed local police to herd anti-Bush protesters into far-removed "protest zones," four advocacy groups claim in the suit. They charge that the Secret Service has kept protesters at bay before, but that the practice has increased markedly since Bush took office.

The groups, aided by the American Civil Liberties Union, say this tactic discriminates against protesters critical of the government and violates their free-speech rights. They are asking a judge in federal court in Philadelphia to stop the practice.

"Allowing a guy with a sign that says 'I Love Bush' to stand up close, while forcing the guy with a sign that says 'Bush, Go Home' to stand around the corner, is obviously unconstitutional and is becoming a pattern and practice of the Secret Service," said Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU's Washington office. "The Bush administration has exceeded all past administrations in controlling camera angles and the public impression of the presidency."

snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54986-2003Sep23.html

[lazarus]

1. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=128755