Constitutional Law

ACLU Asks Supreme Court to Hear Political Speech Case

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU

Yesterday, the ACLU filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear our political speech case, Weise v. Casper.

Originally filed in 2005, our clients in this case are Leslie Weise and Alex Young, who were ejected from a public event in Denver at which then-President Bush was speaking, after White House event staff spotted a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on their car. They were removed from the event despite the fact that they had authorized tickets to be there, and caused no disruption while inside. The sole reason they were ejected from the event was because their bumper sticker was critical of the war. Our lawsuit charges that the staffers violated Leslie and Alex's free speech rights.

Unfortunately, a district court threw out their case, and that decision was upheld by an appeals court. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will take the case, and decide once and for all that political speech is protected by the First Amendment.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on July 07, 2010 (boomark / email).