Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

I stumbled across Forsyth County, Georgia v. The Nationalist Movement on Wikipedia today while researching some other Forsyth county magistrate court stuff. Well many people may know about this case and or the history of Forsyth county Georgia but I was not very well informed myself and I live there/here.

I knew about a history of racism in Forsyth county Georgia (imagine that) and of marches and even of Oprah doing a show here because of all the hullaballo (long before I lived in the area, I was still in high school in a different state when the events took place).

Yet I had no idea that the Nationalist Movement took Forsyth County to court over the fees the county wanted to impose for them to assemble. Turns out the "white supremacist" Nationalists ended up arguing their case before the SCOTUS and won the case setting the precedent around the nation that municipalities cannot charge anyone to assemble. As stupid as the "Nationalist" cause is, this was an important case and led to a very important decision which protects the rights of free speech and assembly, and it happened literally in my back yard.

Also of note is that in this case the ACLU offered to fight the case on behalf of the Nationalists (those crazy ACLU liberal ass nuts, only defending "liberal" causes again, rather than having to do with "civil liberties" wherever they are threatened) and the Nationalists turned them down. The Nationalists let the ACLU file a brief but apparently the Nationalist leader Richard Barrett was quite an orator (along with being a white supremacist asshole) and argued the case himself.

Forsyth County appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, in Forsyth County, Georgia v. The Nationalist Movement, where commentator Tony Mauro said that Barrett made one of the most-memorable addresses ever heard before that body in defense of free speech. Chief Justice William Rehnquist continually berated and interrupted Barrett during his speech, at one point telling Barrett to be quiet. Barrett refused, citing Martin Luther that "Here I stand, I can do nothing else," and continued, at which point Rehnquist took the unprecedented step of walking out, although he later returned.

The high court ruled for the Nationalists and removed all obstacles to use of public property, across the nation. They noted that, under pay-as-you-go schemes, "those unpopular with bottle-throwers would have to pay more" to exercise free-speech rights.