ACLU: “Pleased with decision.”
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake has issued a preliminary injunction allowing an anti-war activist to continue manufacturing T-shirts bearing the names of fallen American soldiers, for profit,
Flagstaff resident, Daniel Frazier, has previously sold the shirts bearing slogans such as “Bush Lied, They Died.”
The Arizona State Legislature passed a bill which Gov. Napolitano signed into law in May, banning the use of the names of dead soldiers in such a manner, without expressed permission of their families. In June, the ACLU filed a suit challenging the law.
Judge Wake’s 30-page decision was based upon free speech considerations.
“The nation’s debt to its fallen soldiers may not be paid by giving their families a toll on free speech. The debt must be paid in other ways.”
Frazier said he has stopped answering his telephone due to the irate phone calls he’s received.
Hmm… I am so tempted to go and make up some t-shirts that say “Daniel Frazier is a low-life as#h*!e”, but then again why stoop to the low level he’s at. This is a bad ruling and hopefully it will get overturned, soon!