All Things Considered, National Public Radio

July 25, 2003

Profile: Protester Brett Bursey, who has been arrested again for protesting outside of a free-speech zone at a presidential appearance

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MELISSA BLOCK, host:

For the past 30 years, whenever South Carolina has hosted presidential visits, Brett Bursey has likely been there. Bursey is what you might call a professional protester. He's demonstrated at appearances by five presidents, from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton. But last year, when Bursey tried to protest against President Bush, he was arrested, and that's put him at the center of an unusual court case involving presidential security and the First Amendment. NPR's Adam Hochberg reports.

ADAM HOCHBERG reporting:

When Brett Bursey went to the Columbia airport October 24th, he knew he was venturing into unfriendly territory for a liberal activist. President Bush was holding a rally for Republicans in the upcoming South Carolina election. Hundreds of the president's supporters had gathered near an airport hangar; some carried signs promoting GOP candidates. Bursey brought a sign, too, but it had a different message. It read `No war for oil.'

Mr. BRETT BURSEY (Protester): I went to the side of the road 200 yards from the hangar, and was told by police that I couldn't be there and that I had to put the sign down or be arrested.

HOCHBERG: Bursey says other spectators were allowed to remain on the roadside, but the Secret Service ordered him to go to the so-called `free speech zone,' an area set aside for protesters about a half-mile away. Bursey refused, and a police officer handcuffed him.

Mr. BURSEY: I asked him if it was the content of my sign, and he said, `Yes, sir, it's the content of your sign that's the problem.' And so it's just become a matter of procedure that the Secret Service is clearing the area of anybody that would have a message that would be contrary to George Bush's policies.

HOCHBERG: Bursey is accused of violating a federal law against entering a restricted area around the president. If convicted, he faces six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The prosecutor, US attorney Strom Thurmond Jr., won't discuss details of the case before trial. But in a brief statement, Thurmond's assistant, Scott Schools, said the charge against Bursey is straightforward.

Mr. SCOTT SCHOOLS (Assistant to Strom Thurmond Jr.): The statute under which Mr. Bursey's been charged alleges that he failed to vacate an area that had been cordoned off for a visit by the president of the United States. It is a content-neutral statute, and Mr. Bursey is charged not because of what he was doing but because of where he was doing it.

HOCHBERG: Bursey's prosecution has attracted attention outside South Carolina. Eleven members of Congress have written Attorney General John Ashcroft asking him to drop the case. The letter, by 10 Democrats and one Republican, questions the practice of confining protesters to free-speech zones at presidential events. Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank is the letter's lead author.

Representative BARNEY FRANK (Democrat, Massachusetts): I'm all in favor of a free speech zone. I think it should be the United States of America. The notion that there should be places where you can engage in free speech and places where you can't is totally antithetical to the Constitution.

HOCHBERG: Bursey is one of a handful of people around the country to be arrested for protesting the president outside designated free speech zones. In recent cases in St. Louis and Tampa, prosecutors dropped the charges, while a Pennsylvania case was dismissed for lack of evidence. The Secret Service defends the practice of establishing the special zones. Agent Brian Marr says demonstrators are separated both for the president's safety and their own.

Mr. BRIAN MARR (Secret Service Agent): These individuals may be so involved with trying to shout their support or non-support that inadvertently they may walk out into the motorcade route and be injured. And that is really the reason why we set these places up, so we can make sure that they have the right of free speech, but, two, we want to be sure that they are able to go home at the end of the evening and not be injured in any way.

HOCHBERG: This isn't the first time Bursey's protests have landed him in trouble with the law. In the early '70s, he was jailed almost two years for painting anti-war graffiti at a draft board office. He also was arrested for trespassing in 1969 as he demonstrated against Richard Nixon at the same Columbia airport. In that case, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned his conviction. Adam Hochberg, NPR News.

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