Klan's unmasked for city protests

[R.A. Hettinga]

<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.

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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