[NYTr] Bush Bumper Sticker Leads to Battle over 1st Amendment

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

The Emory Wheel - Mar 28, 2006
http://www.emorywheel.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=2a7df1c1-ab83-40ac-b7ad-d8973320e115

Nurse starts battle over bumper sticker

by Jordan Jakubovitz

An anti-Bush bumper sticker has led to a battle over First Amendment freedom
of speech rights for one nurse working on assignment at Emory University
Hospital.

On March 10, nurse Denise Grier was surprised to find a police officer
behind her with the lights on his patrol car flashing.

"I didn't think he was pulling me over," she said. "I wasn't doing anything
wrong."

But when Grier slowed down, the officer followed suit. He cited Grier with
violating a state law prohibiting lewd or profane stickers and decals on
vehicles.

The bumper sticker for which Grier was pulled over takes a dig at President
Bush. It reads "I'm Tired of All the BUSHIT."

"My belief is that he simply pulled me over because he doesn't agree with my
politics," Grier said. "That's just an abuse of his power. He can't give
people tickets for those things."

Soon after receiving the ticket, Grier contacted the American Civil
Liberties Union to help represent her when she contests the misdemeanor
charge and $100 fine in court next month.

Her story was reported on local television and by The Associated Press.

"We think this is a core First-Amendment issue," ACLU attorney Gerry Weber
said. "It's the right to criticize the president of the United States, and
if the First Amendment doesn't allow for that, it doesn't allow for
anything."

Grier is not the first in her family to experience this type of trouble. A
few months before she received her ticket, her son was pulled over in Athens
for a different lewd bumper sticker. He was asked to remove the sticker or
be arrested. Grier said she would not have removed the sticker if she were
her son, and that the sticker on his car was more offensive.

Grier feels that the officers had no right to ticket her or her son.

"While I may have offended some people, that is not my goal," she said. "My
goal is to stir people into thinking and acting."

She also believes that what happened to her only scratches the surface of
the issue of freedom of speech.

"This is a pretty mild thing," she said. "What about people who have much
stronger beliefs and act on them strongly? They have to have the freedom to
do that and if I don't have mine, they aren't going to have theirs."

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in 1991 that the law against profane bumper
stickers and decals was unconstitutional because of its subjective nature,
but Weber said the officer who ticketed Grier may not have been aware that
it had been overturned.

Grier said she has no qualms about causing a stir over a $100 ticket.

"That's what I'm fighting for," she said. "The right to express an opinion."

By press time Monday, DeKalb County Public Records had no information for
this ticket.

© Copyright 2006 The Emory Wheel