OUR CONSTITUTION PROVIDES FREEDOM OF SPEECH FOR ALL

The Register article, "High court set to hear Arab deportation case" [Front
Page, Nov. 3], concerning the plight of Michel Shehadeh,was a fine example
of objective reporting and a deplorable example of how low our justice
system descends when it tramples our rights under the Constitution of the
United States of America.

Shehadeh, although a legal resident of this country, was arrested for
passing out leaflets about Palestine that counters the policy of this
country. That's a stupid charge considering how this country was founded.

The Declaration of Independence strongly countered the policies of 18th
century England. As a result we became a free and independent state that
provided through its own Constitution that others would have the same free
speech as the founders of this country.

It makes no difference at all what Shehadeh's leaflets said. He had the
right to pass them out, as we all have the right to read or not to read them.

No government entity has the right to decide by force what the American
public can read and what it cannot read. If the United States government
can now arrest and deport people who speak out openly and who pass out
opinionated leaflets, then one wonders when it will start arresting people
who write strongly opinionated letters to the editors of newspapers.

Don K. Pierstorff

Costa Mesa

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski