In Weise v. Casper, two individuals claimed they were excluded from a speech by President Bush because they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker reading "No More Blood for Oil." Neither of them, however, had any intention of speaking out during the speech itself. In a decision issued earlier this year, the Tenth Circuit, by a divided panel, rejected the protestors' First Amendment claim under the "clearly established" prong of the qualified immunity analysis. The court held: "[N]o specific authority instructs this court (let alone a reasonable public official) how to treat the ejection of a silent attendee from an official speech based on the attendee’s protected expression outside the speech area."
The plaintiffs sought certiorari, which the Supreme Court denied today. The Tenth Circuit's decision is here; press reports on the case are here and here.
