DENVER-
Two people who claim they were kicked out of a Colorado appearance by President Bush because of their political views filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against three White House officials, accusing them of creating a policy meant to limit dissent at the president’s public events.
The lawsuit names Greg Jenkins, director of White House travel planning; Steve Atkiss, Jenkins’ deputy at the time; and James O’Keefe, the White House’s lead advance staffer for the event.
The suit, filed by Leslie Weise and Alex Young of Denver, claims they were ejected from the event because of the policy the three created.
White House spokesman Blair Jones said he could not comment on pending litigation. Atkiss, who now is chief of staff for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security, did not immediately return a call.
Leslie Weise and Alex Young of Denver were ejected from a hall just before Bush was to speak at a taxpayer-funded event on March 21, 2005, about his plans for Social Security.
Weise and Young had arrived in a car with a bumper sticker reading “No blood for oil.” They were wearing T-shirts saying “Stop the lies” under their clothes but did not show them. They have said they had no plans to disrupt the event, but Young hoped to ask Bush a question if given the opportunity.
Earlier, they filed suit against two volunteers at the event, Michael Casper and Jay Bob Klinkerman, alleging they were directly responsible for their ejection. The lawsuit says Young and Weise believed Casper was a Secret Service agent because he wore a radio earpiece, a dark suit and a lapel pin that gave the appearance of authority.
In a sworn deposition he made in connection with the earlier lawsuit, Casper said he was acting under orders from Atkiss and O’Keefe. That prompted the new lawsuit against them and Jenkins. The lawsuit said the three created the policy that Jenkins, as director of the office, was believed to have put in place.
“The White House should not be in the business of censoring Americans,” said Mark Silverstein, Colorado legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuits on Weise and Young’s behalf.
“Our clients were removed not because they were disruptive, but because they could ‘potentially’ engage in critical speech.”
A Secret Service investigation into allegations that Casper was impersonating one of its agents determined he was a staff member with the host committee, and federal prosecutors declined to press charges.
Casper and Klinkerman have claimed they cannot be sued because they were entitled to qualified immunity as government workers. U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel in October denied their motions to dismiss the lawsuit, and they have appealed.
At issue was whether the two were acting as federal officials or as private individuals at the direction of federal officials during Bush’s appearance, and how closely they were supervised.
Klinkerman, the former chairman of the Colorado Federation of Young Republicans, had little involvement in running the event and couldn’t identify any officials who might have issued directives, his attorney, John Zakhem, has said.
