<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/v-pfriendly/story/259512p-222307c.html> New York Daily News Klan's unmasked for city protests BY DEREK ROSE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Tuesday, December 7th, 2004 The hoods hiding under the white hoods of the Ku Klux Klan will have to show their faces if they want to protest in New York City, the Supreme Court decided yesterday. The high court put an end to a five-year legal battle yesterday by refusing to hear an appeal of the city's mask ordinance filed by a KKK offshoot group. The group had argued its rights were violated in 1999, when the city barred its members from a masked protest in Foley Square. Seventeen members demonstrated anyway - along with 6,000 counterprotesters. A federal appeals court ruled against the Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in January, calling the city's 159-year-old ordinance constitutional. "While the First Amendment protects the rights of citizens to express their viewpoints, however unpopular, it does not guarantee ideal conditions for doing so," the appeals court said. The city ordinance forbids gatherings of three or more masked or hooded people - unless they are attending "a masquerade party or like entertainment." Since the law was dusted off to stop the KKK rally, it has been used generally against left-wing protesters at events like May Day protests, the Republican National Convention and the 2002 World Economic Forum. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'