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Rally-rejects suing White House
Couple taken off in handcuffs for anti-Bush shirts ACLU pressing rights case against Secret Service
WASHINGTON—Like many Americans, Jeff and Nicole Rank have an opinion about George W. Bush.
They wore it on T-shirts they unveiled after entering the West Virginia state capitol grounds in Charleston to hear him speak.
The his-and-her shirts included a photo of the president and the word "Bush," both sporting the red-slash international "no" symbol.
His shirt also said: "Regime change starts at home."
Hers said: "Love America, Hate Bush."
Shortly after revealing the shirts, two men demanded that the garments be removed or covered. The Ranks refused and were arrested, handcuffed and jailed for trespassing.
The charges later were dropped and Charleston city officials apologized, saying the arrests were made at the behest of the Secret Service.
Now, the Ranks are making a federal case out of it, suing White House advance staff official Greg Jenkins, who declined to comment on how his staff deals with John Kerry backers at Bush events, and Secret Service director Ralph Basham for violating their right to peaceful protest.
"We wanted to see the president speak and express our disagreement in what little way we could," Nicole Rank, a Texan working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in West Virginia, said when the lawsuit was filed.
"We never imagined that we would end up in jail because of a homemade T-shirt."
Kerry has made fun of the tight security at Bush events. At virtually every one of his more than 70 town hall meetings, the Massachusetts senator delighted in asking the audiences: "Did anyone have to sign a loyalty oath to get in?"
There are no restrictions, as far as the Kerry campaign is concerned. On occasion, when Bush supporters have spoken out against Kerry at the events, Kerry supporters have shouted them down.
John Prather, an Ohio University math professor, earlier this year tested the tolerance levels of each campaign.
He wore a Bush shirt to a Kerry rally in Wheeling, W. Va., and reported that not a word was uttered about it.
The reaction was different when he wore a Kerry shirt to a Bush rally in Cambridge, Ohio.
In a narrative about the event, Prather wrote that a "low-level security person" initially asked him to turn the shirt inside-out, which he did.
A few minutes later, the man tracked him down and said his superiors had told him Prather could not stay at the event with the Kerry shirt.
Prather took it off and put on another shirt he had with him.
The Kerry shirt was taken to a place where it could be retrieved after the event.
Prather, who said he had no intention to heckle or disrupt, proceeded to the meeting area to hear Bush's speech.
"After about 10 minutes, the first security person came up to me again, this time with a second, burlier gentleman," Prather wrote. "I was asked to stand with the second man in an area somewhat away from the main crowd, and again I complied,"
"A couple of minutes later, a third man who told me he was with the president's advance team (or something like that) came up and escorted me out of the event.
"Still not wanting to cause trouble, I went out as I was asked, and waited for my friend who was allowed to stay."
Prather remains unsure for whom the third man worked. It could have been the Secret Service, he says.
Ken Mehlman, Bush's campaign manager, denies any attempts to stifle protest or opposition at Bush rallies. The president, Mehlman says, is eager to speak to undecided voters and independents.
"We certainly discourage protesters. But we welcome discerning Democrats. We welcome independents. We welcome people whose opinion isn't made up.
What about Kerry supporters wearing Kerry shirts and carrying anti-Bush signs?
"There is limited space for the events and you make a judgment," says Mehlman. "If somebody was to go into the event and be potentially disruptive then that ruins the opportunity for everyone to hear from the president."
But it's not just anti-Bush sentiments that are off limits.
The Associated Press reports that three schoolteachers were removed from a Bush rally in Central Point, Ore., when they showed up wearing T-shirts that simply said: "Protect our civil liberties." The women said they did not intend to protest.
"I wanted to see if I would be able to make a statement that I feel is important, but not offensive, in a rally for my president," Janet Voorhies, 48, told the wire service.
The Secret Service did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment on the Ranks' lawsuit or its role at Bush events.
Andrew Wurst, a deputy assistant director for the agency, recently told National Public Radio that his department "has a long-standing policy of recognizing the constitutionally protected rights of the public to demonstrate and voice their views to their elected officials."
He also said that people removed from Bush events by other officials might be questioned by the Secret Service to determine if they are a threat.
The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the Ranks in their lawsuit, is not convinced that's true.
In 2003, representing a retired steelworker who was relegated to a remote protest area when Bush came to a Pittsburgh-area event, the ACLU sued the Secret Service in a case that was dismissed with a Secret Service agreement not to stifle protest.
The current West Virginia lawsuit is an attempt to find out if the Secret Service has violated that agreement.
"What we find out is that the person who tries to throw you out is often hard to identify," says Christopher Hansen of the ACLU Foundation in New York.
"If you ask the local police, they say, `We did it at the direction of Secret Service.' If you ask the Secret Service, they say it was a local police decision."
Hansen acknowledges the potential conundrum caused by the fact Bush is both a president in need of tight security and a political candidate ripe for protest.
"But the safety issues are essentially a smokescreen in the sense that there is no reason to assume that because someone disagrees with the president or someone disagrees with Senator Kerry that person is a safety threat," he says.
In fact, Hansen notes, it is ludicrous to believe that someone intent on harming a president or a presidential candidate would seek attention by wearing or displaying anything noting opposition to the potential target.
"Dissent and disagreement is about as American as apple pie. It is a dangerous and false assumption that anyone who disagreed with the speaker is a threat to the speaker."
The ACLU hopes the Ranks' lawsuit will answer a basic question about who can be excluded from political events and on what basis.
Hansen says the U.S. Supreme Court has never considered such a case, though it did rule that the organizers of Boston's St. Patrick's Day parade could exclude participants who want to carry pro-gay messages along the route.
"The Supreme Court said the organizers could do that because it was their event and it had an ideological bent and they shouldn't be required to dilute their ideological message," says Hansen.
"You could make the analogy that that same argument applies to campaign events. Whether that is legally permissible or not is unclear.
"What I think is clear is that it is not good for democracy."
Hansen sees a fundamental change in the nature of political events. Once, they were an opportunity for a candidate to whistle-stop through town and use the power of persuasion to attract votes.
Now, candidate events are largely made-for-TV shows aimed at demonstrating great support and enthusiasm— and no opposition — for the candidate on stage.
In addition to turning presidential appearances into pep rallies, the Bush campaign has made them multi-purpose events at which organizers collect the names of motivated supporters who can be mobilized for get-out-the-vote efforts.
On a chilly recent morning at Riverfront Stadium in Waterloo, Iowa, Bush backers showing up early for a rally were greeted with a sign that said: "Want to be closer? Upgrade your tickets here!"
Those who signed up were taken to a table of cellphones near where first base would be for a ballgame. In exchange for the upgrade that got them closer to Bush, rally attendees were turned into an instant phone bank and given lists of people to call to solicit support for the president.
Cox Newspapers/Associated press
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