'Buddy Poppies' subject of latest First Amendment battle
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 11/29/2008 6:45:00 AM
Institute President John Whitehead is representing disabled Vietnam veteran John Miska who was repeatedly threatened with arrest for distributing the artificial flowers. The flowers are assembled by other disabled veterans and are meant to remind others of the sacrifices veterans have made for the U.S.
"He hands out Buddy Poppies in Washington, D.C. on the National Mall, by the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam memorial and other places in D.C., but he's been continually threatened by the Park Police," explains Whitehead. "Once he was fined and taken to court for handing out "Buddy Poppies," he notes.
Whitehead argues that Miska has never been abusive to people and is not selling anything. "[T]his is not a panhandler who is grabbing people on the shoulder. This is a guy who's sitting there holding out a poppy and that is all he's doing," he continues. "Sometimes people give him money and that money is going straight to the Vietnam veterans to help the veterans so if there's any case that screams out for justice, it's this one."
Whitehead and Miska have filed a lawsuit arguing that Park Police are infringing on Miska's First Amendment rights.
