Removed from Bush rally for slogan on t-shirt?

[drhess]

I saw a news clip that had people getting pulled from Bush rallies based on t-shirts with ant-bush slogans on them. Is this legal (assuming they aren’t chanting or threatening security)? I guess if it’s a “private” event, the managers can choose who to remove, but seems that if it’s on public grounds and it’s a political event with government officials that it’s fishy. Or can any event be made “private”?

Also, is this happening at Kerry events, too?

[Ms2001]

@drhess

Also, is this happening at Kerry events, too?

No, I haven’t heard any reports of people being turned away from Kerry events for wearing a Bush shirt or pin, arriving in a car with a Bush sticker on it, etc.

[Telemark]

@drhess

I guess if it’s a “private” event, the managers can choose who to remove, but seems that if it’s on public grounds and it’s a political event with government officials that it’s fishy. Or can any event be made “private”?

Yup, private events. They can kick people out for any reason they want. Kinda silly, IMO, but certainly within their rights.

There have been dozens of threads on this topic, in one way or another.

[MaryEFoo]

The fun part is that the Republicans claim the most public events are “Presidential”, not partisan, so free speech is penned up in some area out of sight of the TV cameras. Of course pro-Bush shirts, signs, etc, somehow are allowed.

[SmackFu]

You probably saw this ABC News story. Since it’s an actual article, it has some more info. As long as they are private functions, they can let in who they want.

[Ms2001]

Compare these quotes from the article:

A Kerry staffer at an Oct. 24 Kerry rally in Boca Raton, Fla., told Bush-Cheney T-shirt wearers that the campaign held a permit to rent the site and could remove anyone who made a disturbance.

“We hold the right to remove you, but other than that, enjoy and hopefully at the end of the event you’ll want to wear a Kerry T-shirt,” he said.

“I’m sorry, but they’re Kerry shirts,” a female Bush volunteer said. “We were told not to let people with Kerry shirts into the rally.”

And as they approached the gates of the stadium, Lance “Chip” Borman, a Bush campaign worker and attorney who worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, directed them toward the Brevard County sheriff’s deputies waiting at the exit.

[Zoe]

From what I heard on television, the Bush speeches are “invitaion only.”

[drhess]

@SmackFu

You probably saw this ABC News story. Since it’s an actual article, it has some more info. As long as they are private functions, they can let in who they want.

Thanks. I only saw the video online, so that helps.

[drhess]

@Telemark

Yup, private events. They can kick people out for any reason they want. Kinda silly, IMO, but certainly within their rights.

There have been dozens of threads on this topic, in one way or another.

Just seems that if the events are partially, wholly?, sponsored with federal election funds, some non-disruptive free speech rules should apply if tax dollars pay for an event? Or is the payment of them a mix of both private and public funds? :rolleyes: :dubious:

[rowrrbazzle]

This page has an account of some Catholic seminarians who were denied entrance to a Kerry rally: http://www.priesthood.motime.com/archive/2004-10?from=31

One attendee wrote

She [A Kerry campaign rep] informed me that since the Kerry/Edwards campaign had rented the America’s Center they had every right to deny anyone that they deemed likely to cause a disruption of to be a threat to the safety of the Senator.

Another wrote

we were told that those who were wearing the sweatshirts would have to take them off, because the slogan “Dedicated to the defense of all human life” was considered “anti-Kerry”.

[Eats_Crayons]

There was another well-publiczed instance in which Bush supporters got thrown out of a Bush speech because the teachers had t-shirts with the positive and non-partisan message “Protect Our Civil Liberties”.

Here’s a link