[saymaListserv] Fw: Free Speech appeal set for Sept 1, Columbia

[Taimi Olsen]

Mike,
Thank you.
I wonder if Friends have suggestions for educating others about the free 
speech threats we are facing now.  Should I look to FCNL?
Taimi Olsen

Mike Shell wrote:

> Friends,
> 
> Please read and share this account of the Bush Administration's court-sanctioned suppression of free speech in South Carolina.
> 
> Blessed Be,
> Michael.
> 
> --------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: SC Progressive Network <network at scpronet.com>
> To: network at scpronet.com
> Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 23:18:09 -0400
> Subject: Free Speech appeal set for Sept 1, Columbia
> Message-ID: <p06020437bd56fb54c10b@[151.213.89.213]>
> 
> August 28, 2004
> 
> For Immediate Release:
> 
> BURSEY FREE SPEECH APPEAL SEPT 1
> 
> Wednesday, Sept. 1, 11am, Courtroom 2, Perry Federal Court House, 
> Richland and Lincoln St., Columbia (behind to the federal building at 
> Assembly and Laurel)
> 
>          Brett Bursey will return to federal court Sept. 1 to appeal 
> to U.S. District Court Judge Cameron Curie that his January 
> conviction under the Threatening the President statute be overturned.
>         "I appealed the conviction because the Bush Administration's 
> unconstitutional use of the Secret Service to stifle dissent needs 
> some judicial restraint," Bursey said. The trial is scheduled for 
> 11am. Both sides have been given 30 minutes to make their case.
>         Attorney Lewis Pitts was joined by the Center for 
> Constitutional Rights, a 40-year-old group dedicated to preserving 
> rights granted by the Constitution, to prepare Bursey's appeal.
>         "This case has national significance because it is the only 
> time a peaceful protester has been charged by the federal government 
> for refusing to be corralled into a 'free speech zone.'" Pitts said. 
> "The government is unconstitutionally protecting Mr. Bush's political 
> security by keeping protesters out of sight and out of mind."
>         Jeff Fogel, lead counsel for CCR, said "The use of this 
> federal statute for the first time in Mr. Bursey's case opens up a 
> whole new area of concern about the Bush administration's wholesale 
> assault on civil liberties."
>         Bursey, director of the South Carolina Progressive Network, 
> refused to go to the approved free speech zone during a Bush visit to 
> Columbia, S.C., on Oct. 24, 2002. Bursey was arrested by local police 
> for holding a "No War for Oil" sign in an area where hundreds of 
> Republican supporters, many with signs, were gathering
>         "When the arresting officer told me that the content of my 
> sign was the problem, I decided to take a stand. I thought that if 
> everyone backed down in the face of this foolishness, we soon 
> wouldn't recognize our country," Bursey said.
>         Four months after the arrest, state trespassing charges were 
> dropped and US Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. indicted Bursey under the 
> federal statute that governs threats to the President. Bursey was 
> denied a jury trial and was found guilty by a federal magistrate. He 
> was sentenced to a $500 fine January 6.
>         "I hope everyone who believes that America is a free speech 
> zone will show up Sept. 1 to stand with me against this 
> administration's nationwide assault on our constitutional rights," 
> Bursey said.
> 
> ###

-- 



Dr. Taimi Olsen
Associate Professor of English
Chair, Department of English
T C Competency Program Coordinator
Tusculum College
c/m 5088
Greeneville, TN 37743
423-636-7300 x5234
tolsen at tusculum.edu
For web site, see “faculty pages”
www.tusculum.edu