President Bush: make those protestors disappear.

President George W. Bush has never been an advocate of the First Amendment. Even when he was governor of Texas, he prohibited demonstrations on the walkways in front of the governor's mansion, an area that traditionally had been used for peaceful protests. As president, Bush has widened his restrictions on demonstrations against his policies. Anti-Bush protesters are now relegated to what are euphemistically called free speech zones. These areas are cordoned off as far as a mile away from the president and the main thoroughfares so that Bush cannot see the demonstrators or their signs of protest or hear their chants.

The free speech enclosures are only for those who disagree with the administration's current policies. Those citizens who carry pro-Bush signs are allowed to line the street where the president's motorcade passes. Members of the Secret Service or local law enforcement officers, under orders of the Secret Service, demand protesters move into a free speech area. Peter Buckley of Oregon, a former Democratic candidate for Congress, attended a presidential appearance. After being herded into a fenced-in free speech area, he wrote in an opinion piece for the Oregonian:

   We were not allowed anywhere near any kind of position
   where the president, of the media which follows him,
   would see or hear us. This is not America. This is not the
   land of the free and the home of the brave. This is some
   other country. I'm a patriotic American. I want the country
   I was raised to believe in, a country strong enough
   for political discourse and debate, with leaders courageous
   and decent enough to have the willingness to listen
   to all citizens, not just those who parrot their own
   views.... The effort being made to hide political opposition
   in this country is more than cowardly, it's un-American.

Brett Bursey of South Carolina attended a speech given by Bush at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Standing among thousands of other citizens, Bursey held a sign stating: "No more war for oil." He didn't pose a threat to the president, nor was he located in an area restricted to official personnel. Bursey wasn't blocking a corridor the Secret Service needed to keep clear for security reasons. He was standing among citizens who were enthusiastically greeting Bush. Bursey, however, was the only one holding an anti-Bush sign. He was ordered to put down his sign or move to a designated protest site more than hall a mile away, out of sight and hearing of the president.

Bursey refused. He was then arrested and charged with trespassing by the South Carolina police. However, those charges were dropped. Understandably, courts across the nation have upheld the right to protest on public property. Instead, Bursey was indicted by the federal government for violation of a federal law that allows the Secret Service to restrict access to areas visited by the president. Bursey faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Members of the U.S. House, including those on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft urging him to drop the federal criminal prosecution of Bursey. The letter, signed by eleven members of the House, including Representatives Barney Frank (Democrat, Massachusetts) and Ron Paul (Republican, Texas), states, in part:

   As we read the First Amendment to the Constitution, the
   United States is a "free speech zone." In the United
   States, free speech is the rule, not the exception, and citizens'
   rights to express it do not depend on their doing
   it in a way that the President finds politically amenable.
   ... We ask that you make it clear that we have no interest
   as a government in "zoning" Constitutional freedoms,
   and that being politically annoying to the
   President of the United States is not a criminal offense.
   This prosecution smacks of the use of the Sedition Acts
   two hundred years ago to protect the President from
   political discomfort. It was wrong then and it is wrong
   now.

The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of four national advocacy groups, has filed a lawsuit in federal court charging the Secret Service with a "pattern and practice" of discrimination against protesters violating their free speech rights. The suit seeks to ban the Secret Service and local police from confining protesters to areas away from the view of public officials and the press.

The federal government has gone much further, however. The October 3, 2003, Fresno, California, Bee reported that a member of the Fresno Sheriff's Department had infiltrated the peace group Peace Fresno to collect information on members of the group. Peace Fresno has no history of violent protests that would endanger national security. And on July 13, 2003, the Department of Justice charged the environmental organization Greenpeace with conspiracy to board a cargo vessel without the ship's permission and without other lawful authority before the vessel arrived at its destination. The second count under this prosecution charges Greenpeace with boarding the vessel before arrival. The maximum penalty for each count is a $10,000 fine, as well as a probation period that could reach eleven years. The cargo vessel was approximately three miles from the port of Miami.

Greenpeace activists have peacefully boarded ships throughout the world to protest illegal cargo or illegal fishing methods. They board, protest, and then disembark to their own inflatable speedboats. The protest that sparked this federal prosecution occurred in April 2002. Two Greenpeace activists climbed aboard a cargo ship to unfurl a banner protesting the ship's illegal cargo of Amazon mahogany wood. The banner simply read: "President Bush: Stop Illegal Logging." The activists were detained before they could unfurl the banner. It was an effort to prompt U.S. authorities to seize the ship's cargo. However, the mahogany was never seized and the ship's captain wasn't detained for carrying illegal cargo. Instead, Greenpeace became the target of federal prosecutors. The pattern is clear: the Bush administration wants to suppress civil disobedience and peaceful protest.

The federal government has never criminally prosecuted an entire organization for the free speech activities of its supporters. It's an attack on the very core of the First Amendment. One of this nation's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, is a forceful protest against the actions of King George III and the British government. Protest actions like the Boston Tea Party, the civil rights movement, and anti-war demonstrations have shown that active citizens have the ability to promote and secure democratic ideals.

This article first appeared in the November 9, 2003, issue of the Casper, Wyoming Star-Tribune. Charles Levendosky, editorial page editor of the Star-Tribune, has a national reputation for Bill of Rights commentary. He can be reached at [e-mail]