Free speech at issue as appeals panel hears WTO lawsuit | Seattle P-I

[Ediacara]

Wednesday, February 4, 2004

Free speech at issue as appeals panel hears WTO lawsuit

By KATHY GEORGE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

When Martha Ehman tried to walk on Pine Street downtown, she was ordered to remove words of protest spelled out with masking tape on her backpack.

When Harold Green showed his business card with the words "I protest" written on the back, police officers in riot gear shouted at him to "Go, just go!"

And when Sue Bastian tried walking to a downtown church, one police officer took her protest signs and another smashed them on the sidewalk.

These incidents are described in a free-speech suit to be heard Friday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, more than four years after the riot-torn World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, which led to the court action

More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer