Bill of Rights Powerless Against National Archive's Goons

I'm currently in the middle of reading Matthew Rothschild's You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression. The book chronicles countless incidents where people have been denied their rights in the wake of the Patriot Act and 9/11, more generally. One person gets fired for having a Kerry bumpsticker while a woman gets a visit from the Secret Service for an anti-Bush yard sign. Disturbing stuff.

With such stories fresh in my mind, I read about people being thrown out of the National Archives for wearing pro-impeachment t-shirts.

In a telephone interview, one of the participants, Susan Serpa, age 56, told me she was looking at the displays when a female security guard approached her and said "You need to go speak to that man over there" indicating a burly security guard. When Serpa asked why, the woman said: "Your shirt." Serpa's shirt reads on the front: "Impeach Bush and Cheney, Change History." On the reverse it says: "MaineImpeach.org."

Other security guards then approached Serpa and told her: "You need to leave because of your shirt."

So you can be in a public building funded by your tax dollars looking at the Bill of Rights and be thrown out because someone disagrees with your politics. This is relatively minor when compared to someone being thrown into Gitmo, to be sure, but the difference is of quantity, not quality.