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Sen. Morrow sues schools chief
At issue is denial of site for forum
By Elena Gaona
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 9, 2005
CARLSBAD – Free speech is at stake in the case of a state senator who is trying to reclaim a high school auditorium he had booked for a forum on illegal immigration, his attorney said.
Republican state Sen. Bill Morrow sued Carlsbad Unified Superintendent John A. Roach in San Diego County Superior Court yesterday over Roach's decision to rescind permission to use the Carlsbad Community Cultural Arts Center on the campus of Carlsbad High School for the forum scheduled for Thursday.
The forum, scheduled at 7 p.m., is titled "The Illegal Immigration Crisis," and is billed as a frank discussion on how illegal immigration affects health care, homeland security, education, the economy and the environment.
The community auditorium was approved for the event on July 12. However, on Aug. 3, eight days before the forum was to take place, Roach denied use of the theater, citing recent physical confrontations between opposing groups at events involving illegal immigration.
The two camps generally are those who say illegal immigration hurts the state and its residents, and those who say immigrants, legal or not, are human beings who deserve to be recognized for their contributions to society.
Recent events indicate the two groups cannot always interact peacefully: Police in riot gear had to quell a gathering in May at Baldwin Park; protesters were injured at a gathering at Garden Grove in May; and a police report was filed after a reported scuffle last month in Campo where California Minutemen were monitoring the border.
Those events, Roach said, led him to decide that the Morrow-sponsored gathering was not appropriate for an auditorium on a high school campus.
"I and my auditorium are caught in the middle" of political fighting between the two camps, Roach said, adding that his goal is safety for attendees and for the theater, not shutting down free speech.
"I have absolute, full support for open dialogue," Roach said.
However, Morrow's attorney, Peter Lepiscopo of San Diego, said Roach is acting unconstitutionally by denying the senator and his panel of guests the right to discuss a subject simply because there is opposition to it.
Allowing the late decision to refuse use of the auditorium to stand could set a precedent for future forums on controversial topics, Lepiscopo said.
Morrow is asking the court to order Roach to allow use of the auditorium and to pay unspecified legal fees.
"If we're directed by a court to allow something to take place, we'll act accordingly," Roach said, adding that he had not yet seen the lawsuit.
Morrow represents the 38th Senate District, which includes much of northern San Diego County and part of southern Orange County.
Guests scheduled at the forum are to include U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus; and James W. Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo, founder of the Minuteman Project.
"If a member of the Senate cannot hold a free-speech event in his own district," Lepiscopo said, "then there is no free speech."
Elena Gaona: (760) 737-7575;  elena.gaona@uniontrib.com
 Homepage:: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20050809-9999-1m9morrow.html
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Gosh, this must cause a tizzy!
A state senator sues a corrupt political hack in order to preserve the rights of free speech, and indymedia types support the hack! This is classic.
When supporting the First Amendment is racism, your antics are lunacy, and everybody's watching!
North County surfside Johnny
Homepage::
I love you guys, you clamor for 1st Amendment protection for YOUR wild demonstrations and gatherings, which we all agree, regardless of opinion - is your legal right in America, but suddenly when WE move to hold OUR civilized & totally peaceful gathering with a US Senator, we are called racists.
Go back to Mexico and cry racist over the treatment of the Indios there, all we want here is an enforced border, which it seems even El Presidente understands when it comes to his border with Guatemala. Interesting, aint it?
La Migra's Helper
I'm white, anglo, christian, adult and completely against you minutemen. There are tons of people IN Mexico protesting over the racist treatment of indians. In fact, there's actually an armed resistance and social movement for indigenous rights, dignity and respect happening in Chiapas, Southern Mexico right now (they're called the Zapatistas, named after Emiliano Zapata).
So don't ever tell me, or "us", to back to any country. We are here. We are from here. Why would I go protest in a country where I'm not from and don't have as much moral responsibility. My moral responsibility is right here. America. San Diego. The border region. Where I'm from (where most of the nice people I met out at the campo camp were from). True, I met sa few anarchists and socialists. But they were really nice people, nonviolent, committed to social justice, and had a much deeper understanding of politics and globalization then I've ever heard on the minuteman side (I was listening to minutemen stuff a lot early on, reading everything they said, wondering if they had some sense in them). I came to the conclusion that the minutemen people don't have a deep analysis of the causes of the problems they talk about. Did you read the Union-Tribune editorial the other day? It said that to secure the border and deport all illegals would actually bankrupt this country, costing more $200 billion dollars over 5 years. Thats about $41 billion a year, nore than the Department of Homeland security budget! Its ridiculuous to try to 'secure' the border. It only causes MORE immigration, MORE death, MORE smuggling, and MORE money. Its exactly like the drug war. People (the government administration) think you can stop drugs by fighting clandestine drug wars abroad. Thats ridiculous! To stop drugs, every study has show, prevention and treatment works best. If we stopped fighting drug wars abroad (billions of $) and start putting money into the causes here, we would be much better (and less people around the world would hate us to the point of suicide bombings).
I also read an article in the American conservative about terrorism and its causes and solution. The article was here:
 http://www.amconmag.com/2005_07_18/article.html
Associate Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago who wrote the book, "Dying to Win: The Logic of Suicide Terrorism" said that
"The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland."
this seems very different than what i thought 4 years ago. hell, even 1 year ago!! I don't think we can stop terrorism at the borders like these minutemen think. thats down right counter-productive. it might even creat MORE terrorism because it almost looks like an escalation of war. i don't know.
but don't tell me or us or whoever to go anywhere.
Sam Drueber
 e-mail:: Drueber@yahoo.com
Homepage:: Drueber@yahoo.com
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