[NYTr] Bush Regime T-Shirt Censorship Costs Feds $80K

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[The cost of free speech gets pricey when you try to suppress it.
Right On! And, there will be court costs. -NYTr]


UPI via News Daily - Aug 17, 2007
http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20070817-16203200-bc-us-bushrally.xml


Pair ejected from Bush rally get $80,000

CHARLESTON, W.Va., Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. government has agreed
to pay $80,000 to a Texas couple arrested for wearing anti-Bush
T-shirts at a 2004 campaign rally.

The money settles a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties
Union.

Jeff and Nicole Rank attended a campaign event for President Bush
in Charleston, W.Va., wearing the homemade T-shirts. On the front,
the shirts had a red circle with a bar over the word "Bush." The
back of his shirt read, "Love America, Hate Bush," while hers read,
"Regime Change begins at Home."

The couple made their way through security at the event with the
shirts covered, but when they took the outer shirts off they were
approached by aides for Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who
told them to remove the T-shirts or leave, Jeff Rank alleged, the
Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported.

The couple refused and were carried away handcuffed to the tune of
"America the Beautiful," the ACLU suit said.

The Gazette reported an edited version of an October 2002 Presidential
Advance Manual posted on the ACLU's Web site said organizers actively
tried to prevent protesters from going to presidential appearances.

"We'd noticed that whenever you see Bush on television, he's always
surrounded by fervent supporters," Jeff Rank told the newspaper by
telephone from Houston.