Remember Nicole and Jeff Rank? They were the couple who were arrested at a Bush event — on the 4th of July, no less — for wearing T-shirts that criticized the president. (About the same time the Ranks were being dragged away, Bush was reminding the audience, “On this 4th of July, we confirm our love of freedom, the freedom for people to speak their minds.” Gotta love irony.)
The trespassing charges were ultimately thrown out by a state judge, but the Ranks are understandably still troubled by the ordeal. This week, they decided to go back to court, this time as litigants.
A couple arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts to the president’s July 4 appearance at the West Virginia Capitol filed a federal lawsuit yesterday alleging their First Amendment rights were violated.
Hmm, dragged from a public event in handcuffs for wearing a shirt with an anti-Bush message? Yeah, I’d say that sounds like a First Amendment issue.
Their lawsuit was filed in federal court in Charleston by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys. It names Gregory Jenkins, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance, and W. Ralph Basham, director of the U.S. Secret Service, as defendants.
“What is at stake here transcends politics,” Jeff Rank said at a news conference at the Capitol. “What is at stake is the right of all Americans — Democrats, Republicans and Independents, all Americans — to peacefully voice their dissent to their government.”
He said although he and his wife had never participated in a political protest before, they believed the lawsuit was necessary because, “unless common citizens like ourselves are willing to stand and fight for their civil liberties, those very liberties our great nation was founded upon, ideals of freedom that keep us strong today, will wither and erode until they are gone forever.”
The couple wants a judge to declare unconstitutional any policy that led to their arrest.
Sounds reasonable to me; I’ll keep you posted as to the Ranks’ progress.
On a related note, the ACLU has posted a picture of the couple in their “controversial” T-shirts, in case you were interested.