A federal judge on Wednesday overruled a small Ohio town that had blocked a local Tea Party group from holding a Constitution Day rally in the town’s public square because it was deemed too political.
Judge Donald C. Nugent issued a temporary injunction against Andover Township until the merits of the case can be decided. That clears the way for the Andover Tea Party to commemorate Constitution Day in the town square on Friday.
The town trustees who tried to block the rally “need to learn the Constitution,” Peg Slingluff, a local Tea Party organizer, told FoxNews.com.
“It’s very ironic that an effort to celebrate the Constitution results in a violation of the Constitution,” attorney Curt Hartman, part of the legal team representing the group, added.
The three trustees initially agreed in May to allow the activists to hold their rally when they thought the fledging group was going to have a picnic, serving tea and cookies, Slingluff said. Then they rescinded the offer in July when they learned that the group was affiliated with the conservative grassroots movement that has taken the nation by storm in the last year and a half.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/15/federal-judge-allows-tea-party-group-mark-constitution-day-public-square-town/
According to the Andover trustees, the Tea Party group was denied the right to exercise free speech because of the “political affiliation” of its organizers:
……on July 19, a trustee informed one of the tea party organizers, Margaret Slingluff, that they would not be allowed to hold the event, which would have included singers performing patriotic songs and public policy-related speakers, in the square. In an official letter dated Aug. 25, the trustee said the reason was “due to your group’s political affiliation.”
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/75299
The political affiliation. People who revere the Constitution and want our government to respect and honor it they way we do. People who see what Obama and his merry band of socialist autocratic thugs are doing to this country, and want America back.
That “affiliation”.
So what’s the “correct affiliation” for the Andover trustees? The AFL-CIO? The Socialist Worker’s Party? Organizing for Obama?