Posted on 01/27/2006 5:04:41 PM PST by A_Niceguy_in_CA
SANTA ANA – Anti-illegal immigration advocate Jim Gilchrist filed a lawsuit today seeking to force Laguna Beach and organizers of the city's Patriots Day Parade to allow the Minuteman Project, which he co-founded, to participate in the March 4 event.
Minuteman lawyer Richard Ackerman said the lawsuit is based on First Amendment issues and takes to task the parade committee's decision to ban the Minutemen as a controversial organization while allowing a peace group that opposes the war in Iraq to march in the parade.
Charles Quilter II, a parade committee member, said earlier this week that the privately run nonprofit's bylaws state that no group with a political or religious agenda can participate.
The Minutemen gained national notoriety last year when they staged patrols along the border seeking to stop illegal immigrants from entering the U.S. from Mexico.
The case will be heard next week by Superior Court Judge Sheila Fell
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
The groups website (http://ocpeace.org/act.html) hosts a number of "nonpolitical" signs, I'm sure that they plan to bring with them to share along the parade route.
See also:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1563475/posts and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1565147/posts
Actually I think that bottom photo is of an ACLU rally.
Ping...
Dick Ackerman, the Minuteman attorney, is a well-known and respected conservative state Senator, I believe.
I talked to Jim today just as he was walking into the courthouse. He seemed confident!
Thunder on the Border ping
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