Supreme Court rejects free-speech suit from anti-Bush protesters

Bush protesters lose free-speech case before Supreme Court: Justices say Secret Service has authority to protect president, including forcibly moving away protesters

LA Times

The free-speech right to protest against the President does not guarantee that opponents can be as close to the chief executive as supporters, the Supreme Court said Tuesday, throwing out a suit brought by critics of former President George W. Bush.

Instead, the justices said Secret Service agents have broad authority to protect the chief executive, and this includes forcibly removing groups of protesters who might threaten his safety.

The decision is one of several in which the high court has turned away claims that the Bush White House maintained an "unwritten" policy of using the Secret Service to keep protesters away from the president when he appeared in public.

In Tuesday's opinion for a unanimous court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said nothing in the law would forbid Secret Service agents from acting quickly to move people who could be seen as threatening.

(More here.)