Supreme Court Rejects KKK Mask Case

[emad]

Guardian

Monday December 6, 2004 3:16 PM


By GINA HOLLAND

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court passed up a chance Monday to consider if states can ban members of the Ku Klux Klan and other groups from wearing masks at public gatherings.

Justices without comment rejected an appeal from an offshoot of the KKK whose members wear white robes, hoods and masks.

The Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had challenged as unconstitutional a New York law that allows loitering charges against someone who is ``masked or in any manner disguised by unusual or unnatural attire or facial alteration.''

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Beth Haroules, representing the church and some church members, told justices that people have been allowed to demonstrate with masks before in New York without facing arrest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4656131,00.html

[goclark]

1. Does this mean what I think it means?

Does this say that the hoods are masks and they can wear them instead of suits?

[bowens43]

2. I'm with the KKK on this one.

To arrest protesters for wearing masks is wrong.

[Goldom]

3. I can't tell which way they went by this article

But I agree with the ACLU - freedoms mean nothing if you only support them for people you agree with.

[Endangered Specie]

4. "any manner disguised by unusual or unnatural attire or facial alteration"

thats illegal in New York?!?... I bet their jails must be packed!

[TahitiNut]

7. Naturist law? ("unnatural attire")

That means polyester, right? :silly:

That law is so broad and over-reaching it's appalling.

[quiet.american]

5. An anecdote about this

New Yorkers will remember a few years back when Giuliani actually pulled this one out of the book to circumvent a rally the KKK planned in Harlem, of all places.

Without the right to wear their hoods, about 20 KKK'ers showed up for about half an hour, then beat it out of there.

It might be the only time I ever said, OK, Rudy, good for you.

[SemperEadem]

6. why not stand in their truth, unmasked?

why hide their identity for something they believe so strongly about? Show your face, if you believe that strongly in what you believe. Quit hiding like cowards. Be proud of what you represent. Do what you need to/must do in the light of day, not the cover of darkness.

[TahitiNut]

8. Why not in the nude, then? Same 'logic'.

:shrug:

[VegasWolf]

9. "The Church of the American Knights ," doesn't that just say it all. n/t