Anti-abortion petition outside the post office

[Giant Robot]

I have a question for the wise DUers. Friday while I was mailing out my taxes (yeah if I'm paying why can't people making $10 million) and there was an older man out there with some kind of sandwich board and petition to sign. A quick glance saw it was some kind of anti-abortion mumbo jumbo to try to get an amendment passed here in Michigan to define life as beginning at conception. We made eye contact and he did not say one word to me, even though I was the only one walking in at the time. I let the postal staff know he was at there, and the response was a shrug and, "we're not sure what to do about him." I walked out and he was pitching his nonsense to some passer by.

I am wondering if this is legal to do. This post office is a stand alone building, no side walks by it, and he was standing right by the door. Anyone know?

(Mods this is purely for discussion. I am not looking for legal advice, nor do I intend to follow up on anything here.)

[yankeedem]

1. Probably legal

if he is outside the door. I know that when I go to federal buildings, I sometimes see Lyndon Larouche nuts outside, and I see scientologists in the NYC subway all the time.

[adriennui]

2. isn't that federal property?

and doesn't he need a permit? i'd be pissed off to see this idiot anywhere.

[Giant Robot]

3. He was on the property

and I was wondering the same thing.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. In Bergen County (NJ), I have encountered LaRouche "information

stands" at several post offices. They weren't blocking the entrance and were off to the side. I called the borough clerk, attorney, and zoning head about the legality of this, and all parties told me that they had a legal right to be there.

[riona]

5. I've never seen this type of thing at the PO

[theHandpuppet]

6. Little tale from Virginia

During the 1996 election cycle myself and one other volunteer stood on the sidewalk outside the U.S. Post Office (you have to climb a series of steps to get to the post office itself) with voter registration forms. This was not a Dem-Repub thing, just voter registration. One of the honchos of Clarke County's Republican Party came out from the courthouse across the street and started screaming at us and threatening us with arrest for offering to sign up voters. She was literally standing in the street screaming at us, saying that what we were doing was against the law.

Now I don't know if it was against the law or not, but she was making such a belligerent scene we finally left. Of course, this is the same county where a certain Iran-Contra figure's grown sons nearly drove myself and my pickup truck full of 13 year old Young Dems off the mountain for putting up Clinton/Gore signs. That was one of the most frightening nights of my life. I confronted these men, took a pic of their license plate and made a report to the sheriff's office. Of course nothing came of it, but I learned that Repukes in rural Virginia can be not only nasty but dangerous.