Bush administration violated protestor’s rights, judge rules
On March 20th, 2008, NPAP members Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Carl Messineo and Carol Sobel received a very important ruling in a First Amendment case they litigated on behalf of the antiwar ANSWER Coalition. The case goes back to the 2005 Bush/Cheney Inaugural parade
where protesters were limited to specific, small areas mostly off of Pennsylvania Avenue. The lawyers won an injunction in US. District Court (DDC) against the federal government forcing it to stop its repeated practice of essentially privatizing the Inaugural parade route for the near exclusive use of the supporters and wealthy donors of the incoming administration. The Court declared that practice unconstitutional.
The lawyers established that the National Park Service (NPS) violated its own regulations in order to give preferential treatment to a favored group, the private Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC), and that it engaged in illegal content-based viewpoint discrimination by excluding those whose views do not conform to the administration. The NPS takes most of the land abutting Pennsylvania Avenue during the parade and provides it to the PIC, a private entity created every four years to serve as the receptacle for wealthy and corporate donors to pour in tens of millions of unregulated dollars as the administration starts its term.
To read the verdict click here.
To read the order click here.
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