A legitimate civil rights complaintEugene Volokh links to a news story that the ACLU is suing the government for violating the rights of anti-Bush protestors. The ACLU alleged that in public appearances featuring President Bush, the Secret Service is forcing the protesters into "free-speech" zones as much as a quarter mile away, while supporters of Bush are allowed to remain close to the event. Volokh comments: If these factual allegations are accurate, then there do seem to have been First Amendment violations here. The government might be able to impose content-neutral laws that keep all large groups of people away from where the President is, though even these laws are subject to substantial First Amendment constraints. But I can see no constitutionally adequate justification for allowing pro-Bush rallies near the President's speech but not anti-Bush rallies, if the rallies are either on government property or on a consenting owner's private property -- that would be viewpoint-discrimination, which isn't allowed either in traditional public fora or even in nonpublic fora such as airports.We'll have to wait to see whether the facts support the ACLU's claims, but if they do, then they definitely are in the right on this. There's really no reason to separate protesters and supporters except to exclude the protesters from photographs and camera shots. Volokh also address potential counterarguments from his readers, all of which are unconvincing, here and here and here and here. |
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