From yesterday’s
Palm Beach Post:
A widely published investigative journalist was tackled, punched and arrested Sunday afternoon by a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who tried to confiscate his camera outside the elections supervisor's headquarters.
About 600 people were standing in line waiting to vote early when James S. Henry was charged with disorderly conduct for taking photos of waiting voters about 3:30 p.m. outside the main elections office on Military Trail near West Palm Beach.
A sheriff's spokesman and a county attorney later said the deputy was enforcing a newly enacted rule from Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore prohibiting reporters from interviewing or photographing voters lined up outside the polls.
Howard Simon, from the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, asks the same question I had when I read the report:
"Where did Theresa LePore get the authority to criminalize activities protected by the First Amendment?"
Anyone out there know the answer to that one?
