Lazlow Dot Com

Feds pay $80,000 to couple arrested for wearing Bush protest T-shirts

On July 4, 2004, Nicole and Jeffery Rank attended President Bush's speech at the West Virginia State Capitol. They were handcuffed, arrested and charged with trespassing for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts. They sued the federal government. Yesterday they settled their suit for $80,000.

The front of their homemade T-shirts had a picture of Bush and the international "no" symbol over his face. The back of Nicole's shirt read "Love America, Hate Bush." The back of Jeffery Rank's T-shirt read "Regime Change Starts at Home."

"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."

via boingboing.net

Sadly these kids of incidents have happened nationwide as speech is sequestered to "Free Speech Zones." It was unthinkable years ago that a Tshirt against the president would get you arrested, but clearly this is the kind of freedom many politicians have in mind.

posted by lazlow at 8:58 PM on Sunday, August 19, 2007

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