Posted on 06/25/2003 11:32:54 AM PDT by bedolido
Anti-war protester Brett Bursey's contention the Secret Service denied his freedom of speech to protest President Bush's plan to attack Iraq will be tested in court this week.
The case, which has drawn national attention, opens Tuesday in Columbia before federal Magistrate Bristow Marchant.
The trial is expected to last no more than two days. Marchant rejected a jury trial, saying the case involves a minor offense.
Bursey concedes the Secret Service has the right to determine protection zones for the president, said Bill Nettles, one of Bursey's lawyers.
But during Bush's Oct. 24 trip to Columbia to stump for Republican candidates, police kept moving Bursey and other protesters farther away so the president wouldn't see them, Nettles said.
Bursey's defense says the law was applied in an unconstitutional manner, and protesters posed no threat to the president, Nettles said.
The federal prosecutor who will argue the government's case, John Barton, would not comment. But the charge contends Bursey was in a restricted, cordoned area.
If convicted, Bursey, 54, of Columbia, faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
A longtime political activist, Bursey has been charged at least six times in protests ranging from burning a Confederate flag to antinuclear rallies.
Bush is not the first president Bursey challenged. In 1969, Bursey was charged with trespassing at the airport during a rally by President Nixon.
The S.C. Supreme Court overturned that conviction on grounds that citizens cannot trespass on public property, Nettles said.
Bursey made headlines when he was convicted of defacing a military draft office in Columbia in 1971 during the Vietnam War. He served nearly two years in prison on the state offense.
In the early 1980s, Bursey was charged with having a firearm, which he said he kept in his nightstand. His sentence for spray-painting "Hell no, we won't go" on the draft office in 1971 made him ineligible to have a gun. But federal prosecutors eventually dropped the gun charge, Bursey said.
WHAT IS A 'FREE-SPEECH ZONE'?
Last fall, when Bush visited Columbia, police never clearly established a protest area - often called a "free-speech zone," Nettles contends.
Bursey said he was the first protester at the airport that day. He was arrested when he did not leave the third time airport police and the Secret Service insisted he move.
"They said, 'No, you can't be anywhere expect the free-speech zone,'" Bursey said Friday. He was carrying a sign with the words "No War For Oil."
A few other protesters who arrived during the confrontation left rather than be arrested. But Bursey argued, "I am in a free- speech zone. It's the United States of America.''
Bursey said there was no designated free-speech zone. "The free-speech zone served as a ruse to prevent any protests.''
Nettles said Bursey was not trying to break the law. He wanted to exercise his First Amendment rights.
"Brett's only intention was to let the president ... know that there was a voice in this state that disagreed with his intention to go to war,'' the lawyer said.
Other protesters will testify that police directed them to at least two other locations that were on private property. Property owners would have had to give them permission to protest there,Nettles said.
Airport police initially charged Bursey with trespassing. They dropped the charge without explanation. Nettles said Bursey could beat that charge because of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Nixon case.
PROTECTING 'POLITICAL SECURITY'?
Bursey has drawn support from some in Congress in his latest case.
In late May, 11 representatives wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asking the government to drop the case.
"No plausible argument can be made that Mr. Bursey was threatening the president by holding a sign which the president found politically offensive,'' said the letter, released by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
The outspoken Bursey said at the time, "The Secret Service is being used to protect the political security of the president, and that's not their job."
The other House members who signed the letter were from Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and North Carolina. All but one is a Democrat.
None of South Carolina's six congressmen signed the letter.
Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com.
True, but it does sound like the SS treated him exactly like they treated the FReepers who tried to protest Clinton down in Texas.
In that instance, the SS agents herded the protesters into a fenced area out of sight of Clinton while letting the pro-Clinton folks remain in their area just outside the hotel.
In Clinton's case, I seem to remember that it was Sid "The Squid" Blumenthal who ordered the protesters moved. I wonder who ordered it in Bush's case.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.