ACLU comes to Craig's defense
Sep. 17th, 2007 08:03 pmThe Story That Will Never Die keeps getting funnier and funnier, with heavy jolts of irony and karma. Speaking as a comedian, I'm jealous. I couldn't write stuff this good. I've tried, Lord I've tried. But Real Life (tm) keeps upping the ante.
ACLU comes to Craig's defense, McClatchy Sept. 17, 2007CE:
ACLU comes to Craig's defense, McClatchy Sept. 17, 2007CE:
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a friend-of-the court brief on behalf of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, saying Minneapolis airport police violated his Constitutional right of free speech in charging him with disorderly conduct after arresting him in an airport men's room.
The ACLU filed its brief in the same Minnesota court where Craig is hoping to withdraw a guilty plea in connection with soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in the men's room of the Minneapolis airport. The Idaho conservative, who rarely counts the civil liberties group as an ally, is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 26.
In its brief, the ACLU argues that the government can arrest people for soliciting public sex only if it can show beyond doubt that the sex was to occur in public. The ACLU argues that solicitation for sex in a private place is protected speech under the First Amendment, no matter where the solicitation occurs.