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Happy Constitution Day: Judge Overturns Ban On "Too
Political" Tea Party Rally
Town resolution prohibiting political speech
to be eliminated
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 A
district court judge in Northern Ohio has overturned a local
government decision to prohibit a celebration of the US Constitution
today in the township of Andover.
As we reported
earlier this week, members of the Andover Tea Party
in Ohio were notified that they would be banned from holding
a public rally with speakers and performers in the Town's central
square on Constitution Day.
Township officials cited the group's "political
affiliation" as the determining factor, saying that any
celebrations would be inappropriate for the public arena.
However, legal representatives for the group cited
the fact that previous events in the park have carried far more
weighty political affiliations than a simple celebration of
the Constitution of the United States.
Following a move for a legal injunction against
the local officials filed by the 1851
Center for Constitutional Law, Judge Donald C.
Nugent ruled in favour of the Tea Party group, granting a restraining
order until the merits of the case can be decided.
The judge awarded a "preliminary injunction
that shall remain in effect until further notice," meaning
that the Tea Party group will be able to go ahead with their
celebrations in Andover today.
The 1851 Center, a non-partisan public interest
law firm, called the ruling a "victory", following
the complaint charging that township officials had violated
the Constitutional rights of residents.
Local officials had cited a resolution that allows
them "on a case by case basis" to ban events in the
square that they deem too "political".
Following the Judge's ruling, however, the officials
are set to meet to eliminate the resolution.
"The First Amendment clearly protects the
right to gather on the public square, speak out in support of
limited constitutional government, and critique the current
state of affairs," 1851 Center Executive Director Maurice
Thompson told Fox
News.
"The townships' self-aggrandizing authority
to pick and choose who may speak, based upon whether they approve
of the speaker's message, is entirely unconstitutional."
Thompson added.
"You know, the First Amendment is something
that everybody knows enough about to make this an easy issue,"
Thompson elaborated in an interview with CNS
News. "These people again are either ill-intentioned
or thoughtless -- we really don’t know which. Either is
bad government."
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Steve Watson is the London based writer
and editor at Alex Jones' Infowars.net, and regular contributor
to Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International
Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham
in England.
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