The Bounds of Free Speech

Rachel Maddow on Countdown was hyperventilating last night about the McCain campaign’s contravention of the first and fourth amendments, in that they denied permission for an elderly librarian to stand at their rally holding a sign which read “McCain=Bush.” The lady was given a ticket for trespassing, escorted from the property and told that she would be arrested if she returned. At first the property was described as “public property,” but then it was revealed that it was a private foundation arena that had received some public funding. The McCain campaign had rented the property for the period to conduct their rally.

Certainly one might think that the action was in rather poor taste, and that the campaign probably exercised poor judgement in their decision to have the lady booted by the law.

I’m not sure that any constitutional rights to assemble or speak freely were violated, though. A campaign rally is a private event, and the people conducting a private event have every right to control who may or may not attend that event.

The fact that the property had received some public funding does not make it public property. I’m pretty sure that the campaign would have been within the bounds of propriety even if the property were public property, however, as they had rented the use of it for their event. When you rent a property for your own use, you control access to that property for the duration of the rental period and the property, in this case, included the plaza outside the event arena.

The purpose of the event was to promote John McCain’s candidacy, and in their consideration the lady was acting in a manner contrary to the best interest of that purpose. The lady holding the sign claimed that it was inoffensive, but that is not her decision to make; that decision belongs to the persons conducting the event.

Ms. Maddow compared the McCain campaign’s action to the Bush Administration’s similar actions of restraining protesters to roped off areas removed from the President and out range of the cameras, but there is a major difference: a gathering around an elected official on public land is not a private event on private property.

I think there are more serious issues on which we might well focus.