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New York City's new public schools superintendent announced a program to award high school students grants for art projects, which would be used to beautify specified low income neighborhoods. Grant proposals covered the cost of all art supplies, and provided a $1000 college scholarship for each student who qualified to participate in the program. Students had to submit portfolios of their artwork with their application, and indicate the nature of their planned projects. The grant program brochure provided that all finished projects must be "neither obscene, defamatory, nor likely to offend persons of ordinary sensibilities." The students were not required to sign any agreements that promised to abide by these standards, but any student who failed to comport with these rules would be obliged to return the scholarship funds.
Anatol Marsh, an African American high school student, described his planned project as "a memorial to Amadou Diallo". (Amadou Diallo was a black man, who was shot 44 times by NYC police officers while he stood, weaponless, outside his doorstep.) His portfolio was promising, and he was selected for the art program.
Anatol's finished project was a giant mural, located on the wall of a city block adjacent to Amadou's former home. The focal point of mural was a close up, eight-foot high rendering of Amadou's face, looking heavenward. In the background were four NYC police officers, hooded in white and looking like Klansmen. Beside Amadou's face was the Statute of Liberty, in tears, and the US flag, shown burning.
Anatol was ordered to return his grant funds to the City, which he refused to do. The principal of his high school ordered Anatol suspended for a week because he had "disgraced the school, both by painting that disgusting picture and by failing to repay the money." Anatol promptly became a local celebrity. He was interviewed by the media, and he said Rudy Giuliani (the mayor of NYC at the time of the Diallo shooting) was a racist, lacked any sense of humanity, and was dedicated to suppressing controversial works of art. The media duly reported these statements on the evening news. Giuliani, now a private citizen since resigning from his mayoral position in January 2001 for health reasons, filed a defamation action against Anatol. Anatol defended himself by arguing that Rudy was a public figure, that his comments were opinions, and to the extent they were based on verifiable facts, could be proven true. Giuliani argued that the speech was defamatory, factual and false, and that he was no longer a public official since relinquishing the mayor's office.
Students at Anatol's high school rallied around him, and went so far as to hold a protest at their school. The protest occurred during the lunch hour, and involved about 50 students walking on sidewalks around the school, holding signs that said: "Rudy: Sue Someone Your Own Size" and " Rudy the Racist" - and "Would You Ban Picasso?" The high school principal suspended all students who participated in the march for three days; they responded with a suit alleging violations of their right to free speech.
Meanwhile, back in Detroit, the Board of County Commissioners purchased 100 optical scanning machines, intending to upgrade the voting machines in the Detroit metropolitan area. The new machines were placed in wealthy districts, which were predominantly white. The machines taken out of these districts (mostly older, less reliable punch card machines) were relocated to inner city precincts, which were predominantly black. When queried about the allocation of the new voting machines by a reporter, the County Commissioner said: "Why those new machines cost the earth - you can't expect me to put 'em in places where people don't respect property rights." Voters in black districts where the punch card machines had been placed promptly filed an equal protection challenge to the placement of the voting machines.
Certain citizens of Vermont were less than happy that their state was becoming a mecca for vacationing gay couples, seeking "civil union" licenses. A new, predominantly conservative legislature was elected, which passed a statute that provided that no landlord could be liable for refusing to rent any property to a person known or acknowledged to be homosexual or to two persons of the same sex, so long as the landlord had bona fide religious objections to homosexuality. The legislative history provided that the statute was passed in order to protect the free exercise of religion, and was not intended to supersede any contrary federal legislation.
The Missouri legislature passed its latest series of laws regarding abortion rights, including a requirement that a woman seeking an abortion must meet for one hour with a representative of Operation Rescue, a well-known pro-life organization. The Missouri law also provided that unemancipated minors must obtain the consent of at least one parent, that all women must obtain the recommendation and support of two doctors (who could not be affiliated in their practice), and that no woman could obtain more than two abortions in her lifetime unless her life was threatened by the pregnancy.
A private conservative organization called "Concerned Women For America" ("CWA") learned about the Diallo painting, and launched a protest at Union Station in Philadelphia, PA handing out informational leaflets to travelers headed "Your Tax Dollars At Waste," above a picture of Anatol's mural. The pamphlet included a coupon that invited readers to send donations to CWA to help stamp out inappropriate uses of public funds. Security officials stopped the women after their first day in the terminal, and informed them that they were violating a new rule which prohibited solicitation or other disruptive activity in terminals that has or may have the effect of interfering with train passengers. The CWA women asked if any complaints had been filed, and were told that none had been made.
In the Mojave Desert, on a lonely hiking trail across a federally owned nature preserve, a 10 ft white cross, roughly fashioned of metal pipe, stands solitary and majestic in a magnificent natural setting. Some residents in the local town use the cross as a gathering point for weekly Christian services, which are held intermittently. The ACLU challenged the cross as violating the establishment clause. Local residents responded that the cross has been in place since the 1940's, and was originally erected as a war memorial by a veteran of World War II. There is no explanatory plaque or other current evidence of this function. The cross is maintained and tended by local residents.
Discuss and resolve all constitutional law issues.