http://greengabbro.net/2004/08/31/on-what-grounds-is-this-legal/ rock out to the apparatus Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:30:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://greengabbro.net/2004/08/31/on-what-grounds-is-this-legal/#comment-1382 yami Wed, 01 Sep 2004 14:50:00 +0000 http://greengabbro.net/2004/08/31/on-what-grounds-is-this-legal/#comment-1382 Yes, it’s the use of the Secret Service that would trigger a First Amendment problem, the RNC can establish whatever bizarroland policies it wants for its convention. Maybe there *are* some arrangements that somehow grant the Secret Service the same constitutional status as a private security force - I suppose that’s really a technical question I’m too lazy to answer - but legal or not it’s certainly poor form. Yes, it’s the use of the Secret Service that would trigger a First Amendment problem, the RNC can establish whatever bizarroland policies it wants for its convention. Maybe there *are* some arrangements that somehow grant the Secret Service the same constitutional status as a private security force - I suppose that’s really a technical question I’m too lazy to answer - but legal or not it’s certainly poor form.

]]> http://greengabbro.net/2004/08/31/on-what-grounds-is-this-legal/#comment-1381 Harrison Wed, 01 Sep 2004 14:36:00 +0000 http://greengabbro.net/2004/08/31/on-what-grounds-is-this-legal/#comment-1381 I don’t know… I suppose they could argue that the RNC is in fact a private event, and therefore the 1st amendment doesn’t apply (the protestors can’t protest inside the convention). But surely not allowing two people to speak to each other — and enforcing this with the secret service — should run afoul of some other law. Perhaps they would argue that letting Moore speak to a reported would cause a riot among the delegates, that when they heard what he had to say they would start setting fire to their hair and run around screaming about the great hirsute Satan. I don’t know… I suppose they could argue that the RNC is in fact a private event, and therefore the 1st amendment doesn’t apply (the protestors can’t protest inside the convention). But surely not allowing two people to speak to each other — and enforcing this with the secret service — should run afoul of some other law.
Perhaps they would argue that letting Moore speak to a reported would cause a riot among the delegates, that when they heard what he had to say they would start setting fire to their hair and run around screaming about the great hirsute Satan.

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