High court to hear suit over Cheney event arrest

Source: AP

By MARK SHERMAN – 1 hr 11 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear an appeal from Secret Service agents who say they should be shielded from a lawsuit over their arrest of a Colorado man who confronted Vice President Dick Cheney.

The justices will review a federal appeals court decision to allow Steven Howards of Golden, Colo., to pursue his claim that the arrest violated his free speech rights. Howards was detained by Cheney's security detail in 2006 after he told Cheney of his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Howards also touched Cheney on the shoulder, then denied doing so under questioning. Appellate judges in Denver said the inconsistency gave the agents reason to arrest Howards.

Even so, the appeals court said Howards could sue the agents for violating his rights — an unusual twist that the agents and the Obama administration said conflicts with other appeals court decisions and previous high court rulings in similar cases.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_go_su_co/us_supreme_court_secret_service_cheney_lawsuit

Yeah, arrest was probably a bit of an overreaction. Lucky Dick didn't shoot him in the face - wait, that's for his friends.

Nice to see at least one court seems to have read the Constitution and found nothing to indicate our supreme overlords are exempt from it.

"the appeals court said Howards could sue the agents for violating his rights — an unusual twist that the agents and the Obama administration said conflicts with other appeals court decisions and previous high court rulings in similar cases."

You never know which of the former bushes he's going to defend next.

The issue is from when Cheney was in office. It rests upon what the Secret Service overheard and what Cheney told them, that he was touched. However, the first is a right to comment and the second is he said/a scum bag said.

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Or was he charged with assult? Later it said harrassment charges were dropped. In reading the article the arrest did not happen because of the alleged shoulder touch. It happened when agents had second thoughs and aggressively questioned Howard after Cheney had left the area. Also, this was an event where people were lining up to speak with Cheney. It's likely that other people touched Cheney as well as that is the nature of these meet and greet events and is why there was no initial reaction to Howard. The only thing that is different here is that Howard was an opponent rather than a supporter. In that regard this is a 1st Amendment issue. That said, I expect the Secret Service agents to be let off the hook even though they handled this very poorly.

NT