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Crawford protesters earn First Amendment victory at TXCCA

Here's an unexpectedly positive ruling from Texas' high criminal court that shows how divided the court has become. Via the Houston Press' Hairballs blog:The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals -- the Supreme Court for criminal matters -- has upheld a lower court's decision to toss out the convictions of two protesters arrested outside of President Bush's Crawford ranch (Does he still go to that thing anymore?)By a 5-4 vote, the TCCA found that the arrests were not warranted."Today's court ruling is a monumental victory for the First Amendment," ACLU of Texas Legal Director Lisa Graybill said. "Time and again we have said that Dr. Hardy and Mr. Myers were arrested for no other reason than expressing their views."Here's what the majority opinion said: One might also "obstruct" a highway by aiming a strobe light at oncoming traffic, thereby rendering passage unreasonably hazardous, but cavorting on the sidewalk while dressed as a gorilla would not "obstruct" a highway...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).