Jeffrey Clay of Alton was arrested by the Alton Board of Selectman last February after being accused of character assassination and disorderly conduct, which most of you would recognize in it’s actual exercise as ‘speech intimidation.‘
(Union Leader) In what the state’s American Civil Liberties Union legal director called “a powerful statement on the importance of the First Amendment,” a Laconia circuit court judge dismissed a criminal charge for disorderly conduct against a man arrested during a selectmen’s meeting in February.
…
“The arrest of (Clay) is found by the court to be a violation of (Clay’s) First Amendment right of free speech,” Carroll wrote.The arrest amounted to “content-based censorship as the defendant was acting within the very rules promulgated by the (selectmen) as well within his constitutional rights under the U.S. and N.H. Constitutions,” Carroll wrote. Clay “complied with the board’s own protocol, established by the board for public input.”
Nothing all that surprising here, though if you take some time to read the source article you will find a number of quotes by the NH ACLU representative that might give you pause when compared to their “support” for tailored buffer zones around abortion clinics including New Hampshire’s buffer zone law.
Bissonnette said Clay was arrested “simply for engaging in political, non-disruptive speech on matters of public concern.”
“(Carroll’s) opinion is a powerful statement on the importance of the First Amendment,” he said.
It is indeed, but only in some circumstances?
(The legal bill to defend blocking non-disruptive political speech in Alton was less than taxpayers will pay for the buffer zone battle that is ongoing, but I’d still be interested in how much Alton got milked so that their selectman could play at being petty tyrants?)
