ACLU APPEALS TWO VERMONT CIVIL RIGHTS CASES

MONTPELIER - The Vermont Chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union will go to federal appeals court this week, trying to reverse a
lower-court ruling allowing officials at a Vermont school ban images
of drugs or alcohol on student clothing.

The ACLU will also ask the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New
York to overturn another lower-court ruling allowing the federal
government to conduct random screening of automobiles and luggage on
ferries that cross Lake Champlain.

The ACLU claims the ferry searches violate passenger rights under the
U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment protecting against unreasonable
search and seizures, while the Williamstown Middletown School's dress
code violates a student's First Amendment right to free speech - a
political statement that used drug and alcohol images.

"Students don't shed their rights when they enter the schoolhouse
gate," said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont ACLU.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions last year ruled that Zachary
Guiles' rights were not violated when Williamstown Principal Kathleen
Morris-Kortz ordered him to cover up images on a T-shirt that were
critical of President Bush.

The shirt referred to Bush as a lying drunk driver who abused cocaine
and marijuana, and called the president a "chicken-hawk-in-chief" who
was engaged in a "world domination tour." The garment was covered
with a variety of images, including cocaine and a martini glass.

The seventh-grader obtained the shirt at an anti-war rally. He was
suspended for one day when he refused to cover up the shirt's drug
and alcohol images, but was later allowed to wear the shirt if he
covered up the drug and alcohol images with tape.

Session's ruled that the school could censor the images because they
violated a school policy preventing the display of drug and alcohol
images. The judge, however, ordered Guiles' disciplinary record
expunged because initially he was also told to cover textual
references to cocaine.

The judge ruled that words were different than images and could not
be censored if they were used to convey a political message.

School officials are only interested in preventing messages that
promote drug and alcohol use, and were happy with the compromise,
said Tony Lamb, the school's attorney. But Guiles and the ACLU
claimed the student's rights were violated, and appealed Sessions' ruling.

"We think the distinction between words and images when dealing with
core political speech is a false one," Gilbert said.

"The judge said you can censor all drug and alcohol images if you
have a policy that says so," Gilbert said. "That is an unworkable
policy that denies students a chance to engage in further, meaningful
discussion about the political messages they are trying to convey."

The appeals court will hear the case Friday.

The Vermont ACLU is also unhappy that the Maritime Transportation
Security Act of 2002 granted the U.S. Coast Guard the authority to
randomly screen passengers riding ferries across Lake Champlain.

The law allows the Coast Guard to do random searches of car trunks,
luggage and backpacks. The ACLU in 2004 filed suit on behalf of
Colchester resident Michael Cassidy who uses a ferry to commute to
his job in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

The government says the screenings, which it says are no less
intrusive than the procedures undergone by airline passengers every
day, are useful tools to thwart possible terrorist attacks.

The ACLU, however, claims there is not enough evidence that Lake
Champlain ferries are an actual target to justify the searches.

"We are not saying all searches of maritime vessels are prohibited,"
Gilbert said. "We are just saying these on Lake Champlain cannot be
justified. The government must have a good reason for infringing on
your constitutional rights."

U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha earlier this year ruled the
federal government has the right to conduct searches on ferries
without proof of specific threats.

The ACLU says the law should force the government to spend its
limited anti-terror dollars more wisely and should show there are
"special circumstances" before conducting searches without a warrant.

"We have to force the government to make better security decisions,"
Gilbert said. "There are many forms of public transportation. Why do
we search ferries in the middle of nowhere crossing Lake Champlain
when we don't search a bus that is going right by a federal building
in downtown Burlington?"

Carol Shea, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Burlington,
declined to comment about the case, which will be argued at the
federal appeals court Thursday.