Couple Arrested At Bush Rally Files Suit!

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-09-15 01:03pm

The T-Shirt Couple from July is filing suit against the Secret Service!!

Charleston WV DailyMail wrote:Couple arrested at Bush rally files suit
Pair seeks change to protest policy and monetary damage for emotional stress

By The Associated Press
Wednesday September 15, 2004

A couple arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts to the president's July 4 appearance at the West Virginia Capitol have filed a federal lawsuit alleging their First Amendment rights were violated.

Nicole and Jeff Rank were removed from the event in handcuffs after revealing T-shirts with President Bush's name crossed out on the front. Nicole' Rank's shirt had the words "Love America, Hate Bush'' on the back and Jeff Rank's had "Regime change starts at home'' on the back.

Their lawsuit was filed in federal court in Charleston on Tuesday by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys. It names Gregory Jenkins, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance, and W. Ralph Basham, director of the U.S. Secret Service, as defendants.

"What is at stake here transcends politics,'' Jeff Rank said at a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday. "What is at stake is the right of all Americans -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents, all Americans -- to peacefully voice their dissent to their government.''

He said although he and his wife had never participated in a political protest before, they believed the lawsuit was necessary because, "unless common citizens like ourselves are willing to stand and fight for their civil liberties, those very liberties our great nation was founded upon, ideals of freedom that keep us strong today, will wither and erode until they are gone forever.''

The couple wants a judge to declare unconstitutional any policy that led to their arrest. They also are seeking unspecified monetary damages for emotional harm they suffered.

Spokesmen for the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Justice, to whom a White House spokesman directed questions, declined to comment. Both said their respective agencies do not comment on ongoing litigation.

Trespassing charges filed against the couple by Charleston police officers after they were removed from the event were later dismissed because a municipal judge determined city trespassing ordinances do not apply to Statehouse grounds. City Council and Mayor Danny Jones have publicly apologized to the Ranks.

Jones, a Republican, has said the police officers who arrested the Ranks were told to do so by Secret Service agents.

Charles Bopp, a spokesman for the Secret Service, had previously said his agency did not direct the arrests.

Although Nicole Rank, 30 and a registered Democrat, initially was dismissed from her job with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, she was rehired after the charges were dropped. She now is on an assignment in Richmond, Va.

The Ranks had been living in Corpus Christi, Texas, and were in West Virginia because of Nicole Rank's FEMA assignment. They have since moved to Charleston.

Jeff Rank, 29 and a registered Republican, is a math and science tutor at the University of Charleston.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2004-09-15 05:46pm

I hope they take 'em to the cleaners.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-15 05:51pm

Elfdart wrote:I hope they take 'em to the cleaners.

Please. You are talking about the government. This will end up the
same place that other people who have gotten fucked over by them;
in Hell.

Exmoor Cat · Post by **Exmoor Cat** » 2004-09-15 07:00pm

Elfdart wrote:I hope they take 'em to the cleaners.

Before or after the T-shirts are filed as evidence???

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-09-15 09:39pm

I don't care what their demands are, they deserve to win.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-09-15 09:48pm

Successful or no, how would this affect the Bush campaign?

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-09-16 09:43am

Gandalf wrote:Successful or no, how would this affect the Bush campaign?

Prolly not at all, since they'll delay the trial until afterwards.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-09-16 10:59pm

Campaign? Not at all. Forming legal precedent so that future attempts to pull this kind of crap get the US government punched in the nuts? Now /there/ is a worthy goal.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-09-17 12:26am

Purhaps we can eliminate the Deathshead pins and brown shirts from the Current Secret Service budget....

Vohu Manah · Post by **Vohu Manah** » 2004-09-17 02:10am

About time they sued. I do hope they win, the Secret Service was way out of line.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » 2004-09-17 02:13am

Time for someone to cough up the cash from those Haliburtion profits.