Sunday, March 18, 2007

L-sign

The ACLU undertakes another critical defense of free speech:

Two people ejected from a presidential appearance in Denver because of a bumper sticker have added a former White House deputy assistant to the list of individuals they are suing.

Greg Jenkins is being sued because he managed appearances by President Bush as head of the White House office of advance, and the office had a policy of ejecting anyone with views perceived as different from the president's views, said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the Denver branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Leslie Weise and Alex Young were removed from the taxpayer-funded Bush speech in Denver on March 21, 2005, though they had done nothing disruptive. They were told later by a Secret Service agent who investigated their removal that they were ousted because they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker that read, "No more blood for oil."

Weise and Young, backed by the ACLU, are suing for violation of their rights to free speech, Silverstein said.

Whatever. Stupid is as stupid does. The only reason I mention it is to compare (AND contrast!) the ACLU's proactivated stance on this irredeemably minor issue with its handling of the Ward Churchill case--that is, that they're not handling the Ward Churchill case at all.

David Lane is still Churchill's attorney, apparently, but neither Churchill nor Lane's name has been paired with "ACLU" for quite some time. So why hasn't the union backed up the ringing (well, tinkling) declaration they made at the beginning of the mess? Hmmmm? (Psssst, the word starts with "l," ends with "r" and oozes in the middle).

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