More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union is targeting the Albuquerque visit by President Bush in August as a test case for the free-speech rights of protesters.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on Tuesday charging that Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies and local police kept anti-war demonstrators 150 yards away from the site of an Aug. 27 fund-raiser for Sen. Pete Domenici in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.

At the same time, people holding a banner that read "God Bless George Bush. We pray for you" were allowed to stand alongside the motorcade route opposite the driveway into the home of Los Ranchos Mayor Larry Abraham on Rio Grande Boulevard Northwest.

"Law enforcement officers gave Bush supporters front-row seats and made those who disagreed with the president stand behind a wall of cars and horses," said Peter Simonson, ACLU of New Mexico executive director.

It is the clearest case the ACLU has found of what it believes is a pattern of attempts nationwide by the White House to use the Secret Service and local authorities to block the free-speech rights of demonstrators, said ACLU staff attorney Katherine Crump.

The ACLU also has sued on behalf of two Denver residents who were kicked out of a Bush public event by volunteers because of an anti-war bumper sticker. It won an $80,000 settlement for a Texas couple arrested for trespassing at a West Virginia Bush event after they refused to cover up T-shirts that said "Love America, Hate Bush."

Crump pointed to an October 2002 White House "Advance Manual" that instructs event staff to "work with the Secret Service and have them ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route."

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of nine demonstrators who were members of the groups Stop the War Machine and Code Pink: Women for Peace.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department, the county Board of Commissioners, the city of Albuquerque, Albuquerque police who assisted in the event protection, and unnamed defendants the ACLU hopes to show through discovery are Secret Service and White House officials.

The Secret Service and the Bernalillo County Attorney's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit, but Sheriff Darren White said he disagreed with all the allegations.

"I was actually in the home (Abraham's). You could see the protesters," said White.

White is now running for the GOP nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat.

He said the Secret Service allowed the Bush supporters to stay where they were because they were on private property. He said a deputy stood between them and the motorcade.

The protesters were given a choice of whether to stand north or south of the driveway entrance on Rio Grande Boulevard, White said, but were not told which direction Bush would be coming from. They chose the south side and Bush came from the north, he said.

According to the lawsuit, some protesters were given permission by a nearby homeowner to move closer to the driveway but were told by deputies that it was too late for them to relocate because the motorcade was about to arrive.

White did not deny that mounted deputies stood between the demonstrators and Abraham's driveway, but said he was not instructed by the Secret Service or the White House to block the view of protesters from the motorcade.

"Every operational plan that is put together, we recognize that there will be protesters, and we try to provide a safe environment for them to demonstrate, but the paramount concern is the protection of the president," White said.

He said local officers treated Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, the same way when he campaigned in New Mexico for president.

Crump said the ACLU's concern is not just with this president. The organization also successfully intervened on behalf of anti-abortion protesters who were denied access to protest at President Clinton's inauguration, she said.

"No president of any party likes to be publicly criticized. The Bush administration wasn't the first to keep protesters at bay, and it won't be the last," Crump said.