Judge Throws Out NATO Protesters' Lawsuit

[struggle4progress]

By JON SARCHE
Associated Press Writer

A federal judge on Monday tossed out a lawsuit filed by peace protesters who said their free speech rights were violated when Colorado Springs officials barred them from demonstrating within sight of a NATO meeting in 2003.

Judge Richard Matsch said the steps city officials took to control protests were reasonable, especially after the theft several months earlier of 450 pounds of a fertilizer-fuel oil mix similar to the bomb that killed 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The plaintiffs, members of a Colorado Springs-based group that opposes government attempts to militarize space, have not yet decided whether they will appeal, said attorney Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

"At the ACLU, we continue to believe that safety and security don't require forcing protesters to stand three full city blocks away or otherwise suppressing First Amendment rights," Silverstein said. <snip>

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050725/APA/507251135&template=variable

[acmejack]

1. Another nail in the coffin of the first amendment

This is not your father's America...

[dArKeR]

2. What does the theft of fertilizer-fuel have to do with protesters?

[DBoon]

4. were they going to hide it in their pockets?

legal, peaceful demostrators are the last group to detonate a large explosive like this.

[dArKeR]

5. We need more immoral/corrupt GOP Christian judges!

Why shouldn't the judge have to explain his link in details. Isn't that his job?

[gumby]

3. That's what's called:

"Interpreting the law instead of legislating from the bench."

"Strict Constructionist"

"Originalist"

The rich and powerful shall be protected at all costs. After all, that's what the Constitution dictates to those who hold the above definitions. Rather than "fascists," they call themselves "conservatives" now (see am hate-radio, led by Limbaugh).