Well, sort of. A radical judicial activist dropped trespassing charges against a couple who dared to express a political opinion on public land:
A Texas couple is headed home after proving Americans have the right to say what they want, when they want, even during a Presidential visit. Charleston Municipal Court Judge Carol Bloom dismissed the trespassing charges against Jeff and Nicole Rank Thursday morning.
The couple was charged after wearing anti-Bush T-shirts to the President’s 4th of July address at the state capitol. The Rank’s lawyer, Harvey Peyton, says the charges were dismissed as a matter of jurisdiction. “Municipalities only have the authority to enforce, in their courts, violations of the municipal code. This citation was a general charge of trespass but the city of Charleston does not have an ordinance that prohibits trespass other than on city property or ‘the property of another,’ and that does not apply to the common grounds of the state house which, of course, is owned by everybody.”
This doesn’t appear to be a First Amendment victory. But the import of this is that if lawbreakers continue to express themselves outside the friendly confines of government-sanctioned free-speech zones, the zones will soon lose their air of privilege.
UPDATE: The Daily Show had a segment on free-speech zones last night. Again a fake news program seems to have a better beat on the issues that the “real” news programs. It also had good commentary on “conventional wisdom”–“Talking points: they’re true, because they’re said alot.”