The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that protesters of former President George W. Bush can't proceed with a long-running lawsuit claiming Secret Service agents treated them differently than pro-Bush demonstrators during a 2004 campaign stop.
The anti-Bush demonstrators sued for damages, saying the agents engaged in viewpoint discrimination by moving the Bush opponents farther away from an Oregon restaurant where the president dined, while leaving Bush supporters in a closer spot.
The protesters alleged the agents' actions were part of an unwritten Secret Service practice of working with the White House to eliminate dissent at presidential appearances.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for a unanimous court in Wood v. Moss, said the agents were entitled to immunity from the lawsuit.
"Even accepting as true the submission that Secret Service agents, at times, have assisted in shielding the president from political speech, this case is scarcely one in which the agents acted without a valid security reason," Justice Ginsburg wrote.
When the president sat down at the restaurant's outdoor patio, the court said, the 200 to 300 anti-Bush protesters were "within weapons range of his location," while the pro-Bush demonstrators weren't.
The First Amendment "disfavors viewpoint-based discrimination," Justice Ginsburg said, but she added that "safeguarding the president is also of overwhelming importance in our constitutional system."
The court's decision overturned a lower-court ruling that allowed the protesters' case to go forward.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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