Posted on 09/04/2001 6:37:21 AM PDT by Neets
REPOST OF THREAD FROM SATURDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2001.
This morning, agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service served a leader at the Klamath headgates, Barbara Martin, with legal papers, including a complaint, motion for a temporary restraining order and motion for an order to show cause, and a temporary restraining order, barring her from "occupying, entering upon the area within the fence surrounding the [headgates], [or] interfering with, impeding, damaging, or obstructing the operations of the Bureau of Reclamation water control head gate".
The Justice Department obtained the temporary restraining order without notice to Ms. Martin on Friday, August 31st, claiming that "the undersigned was unable to contact Ms. Martin, and therefore did not advise him [sic] of this application". No record is given of just what effort was made to contact Ms. Martin, who spends a great deal of time at the headgates and is easy to reach. The temporary restraining order contains a typo that suggests it has been in the works since August 23rd.
Though served on Saturday morning, the order requires Ms. Martin to appear before United States District Judge Ann Aiken at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 4th, in Eugene, Oregon, which is hundreds of miles away from Klamath Falls. (Interested members of the public could presumably attend; the address is 211 E. 7th Avenue.) Judge Aiken is the same judge who previously denied relief to the irrigators.
The Supreme Court has declared that the First Amendment does not protect "advocacy . . . directed to inciting and producing imminent lawless action and [which] is likely to incite or produce such action" (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 447 (1969)). The complaint thus includes, as an exhibit, a declaration from Special Agent Scott G. Pearson, who relies, in part, upon a "confidential informant". Agent Pearson declares that Ms. Martin "circulated through the crowd calling for participants to effect a 'citizens arrest' of the federal officers and repeatedly attempted to incite the crowd to physically occupy the headgate structure". Ms. Martin denies these allegations. The papers do not explain why walking upon the headgates amounts to "lawless action". By contract, the headgates are under the management and operation of the Klamath Irrigation District, not the Bureau of Reclamation.
Note to self: work to change that.;^)
Klamath BTTT!!
A Hosuton bump for Klamath and a hope those Bureau of Reclamation idiots quit occluding the truth.
Can you put a suckerfish in a black robe as a backround?
BUMP FOR BARBARA MARTIN AND JUSTICE!
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