The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a new lawsuit targeting the White House in the case of three Denver activists who were ejected from a taxpayer-funded, town hall meeting with President Bush in 2005.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Denver, names three White House staffers who excluded the activists on the basis that they were potentially disruptive, even though they had done nothing to disrupt the event.
“The White House should not be in the business of censoring Americans,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado. “Our clients were removed not because they were disruptive but because they could ‘potentially’ engage in critical speech.”
The new lawsuit was filed after former White House staffer Steve Atkiss testified earlier this month that it was White House policy to exclude potentially disruptive guests from crowds attending Bush’s speeches.
In sworn depositions, bouncers Michael Casper and Jay Bob Klinkerman named Atkiss and current White House staffer Jamie O’Keefe as the officials who ordered the removal of the three activists – Alex Young, Leslie Weise and Karen Bauer. Only Young and Bauer are involved in the new lawsuit.
