American Commode Licker's Union Defends Sen. Craig
The filed court brief argues the state didn't prove Sen. Craig intended to have sex in public. How can the ACLU even think of defending this man? The ACLU and toliet politics. This should all be flushed down into the same hole.
Associated Press/Andy King The ACLU argues that the sting operation used by airport police in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport men's room, above, was so broad that innocent people could be caught up in it.
Washington, DC
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a friend-of-the court brief on behalf of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, saying Minneapolis airport police violated his constitutional right of free speech in charging him with disorderly conduct after arresting him in an airport men's room.
The ACLU filed its brief in the same Minnesota court where Craig is hoping to withdraw a guilty plea in connection with soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in the men's room of the Minneapolis airport. The Idaho conservative, who rarely counts the civil liberties group as an ally, is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 26.
In its brief, the ACLU argues that the government can arrest people for soliciting public sex only if it can show beyond doubt that the sex was to occur in public. The ACLU argues that solicitation for sex in a private place is protected speech under the First Amendment, no matter where the solicitation occurs.
The sting operation used by Minneapolis airport police was unconstitutional and was so broad that innocent people could be caught up in it, said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU.
"It is not a crime to solicit sex that would occur in private," Romero said. "It is a crime to solicit sex that would occur in a public place. What the state failed to show was that Senator Craig clearly expected to have sex in public."
The ACLU brief also argues that there are plenty of less-invasive ways for law enforcement to stop nuisance behavior, such as posting signs warning people that sex is banned in the rest- room and sending in uniformed officers to patrol.
A spokesman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport said its police department stands by its undercover sting and that its prosecutor will fight Craig's efforts to undo his guilty plea. They expect to file a response to Craig's motion by next week, said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan.
"We believe the charges filed fit the crime," Hogan said. "Senator Craig, ultimately, he agreed to the charge of disorderly conduct and ultimately pleaded guilty to the crime. We stand by the charge."
It's not unheard of for the ACLU to step to the defense of high-profile people who don't necessarily agree with the group's civil rights mission, Romero said. When conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh faced an investigation into prescription drug fraud, for example, the ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending his medical privacy. The ACLU argued, and the court agreed, that the records should be off-limits to prosecutors.
Craig's only previous alliance with the ACLU was in 2004, when the Patriot Act was being reauthorized and he was one of only a few Republicans to say that the provisions of the post-9/11 anti-terror law were too intrusive. (The Sacramento Bee)
