Monday, September 17, 2007

First Amendment Protects Senator Larry Craig's Bathroom Behavior ???


The ACLU has said that Sen. Larry Craig's hand movements and foot tapping inside a public restroom at the Minneapolis Airport, amounted to Constitutionally protected free speech.

The Idaho Senator had plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct but has now asked the Court to permit him to withdraw his guilty plea.

The Police Officer who arrested Senator Craig said that the Senator was moving his foot next to his, in a way that indicated that he was seeking a sexual rendezvous and was sending a signal by swiping his hand under the divider between the stalls and peeping into the officer's stall before taking his own stall.

From the Police Officer's experience, these were all signs that someone was soliciting gay sex.

The ACLU has argued in a brief filed today in Craig's case, that the disorderly conduct statute is too vague to be enforceable. Chuck Samuelson, Executive Director of Minnesota ACLU has said, "...other Police Departments have prevented bathroom sex by posting signs and patrolling with uniformed Police Officers...the undercover work is kind of like a sting operation that is at the very best boarders on entrapment."

Since Sen. Craig's arrest on June 11, the restroom is now attracting tourists according to airport officials.