Thread: Minutemen plan to sue after parade permit denied

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ho ... 962758.php

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Minutemen plan to sue after parade permit denied
Laguna event bars political groups, spokesman says.

By LAYLAN CONNELLY
The Orange County Register

LAGUNA BEACH – The founder of the Minuteman Project said his group is being discriminated against by the organizers of the Patriots Day Parade after its application to join the March event was denied.

Charles Quilter, spokesman for the parade association, said the nonprofit's bylaws state that no group with a political or religious agenda is allowed. Since they refused the Minutemen, Quilter said he has been subject to racist e-mails and phone calls from supporters of the anti-illegal immigration group.

Quilter said the decision was partly based on Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist's run for Congress. Also, the group is "a well-known political organization with political goals," Quilter said.

He said many church groups in the past have been denied participation.

Gilchrist said they were "flatly denied" within an hour of filing their application. He said he plans to file a discrimination lawsuit by Friday against the parade and its organizers.

"This is a darn insult," he said. "The Minuteman Project is being deliberately demonized by the parade commission."

kool! about time our side started suing !

What do these wackos in Laguna Beach think "Patriot" means? The Minutemen are true present day patriots!

The noun patriotism has one meaning:

Meaning #1: love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it
Synonym: nationalism


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http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_026073119.html

Jan 26, 2006 2:29 am US/Pacific

Minutemen Intend To Sue Laguna Parade Committee

(CBS) GARDEN GROVE, Calif. Jim Gilchrist, a co-founder of the Minutemen Project -- a citizen border patrol group, announced to members of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform that he will file a discrimination lawsuit against the organizers of the Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade on Friday. He contends that he was unfairly prohibited entry to the 2006 parade, which will be held March 5th.

According to Gilchrist’s representative, Tim Bueler, the parade committee denied entry to the Minutemen Project because of Gilchrist’s prior run for Congress and announced intention to run again. The group’s denial was also due to its controversial nature.

The treasurer of the parade committee, in notifying Gilchrist of his ineligibility, also mentioned that he had been involved in protests against a day labor site in Laguna Beach. However, Bueler said, groups that have been active in the day labor center will be allowed to march, as will the anti-war group Laguna Beach Vigil for Peach -- which holds weekly demonstrations in downtown Laguna Beach.

"(The committee) accuses us of being too political, but if you go on the Web sites of some of the other groups, they say their purpose is to change how people think," Bueler said.

Charles Quilter II, a Patriots Day Parade committee member, said his group held an emergency meeting on Monday and reaffirmed, on a 14-0 vote, its decision to exclude Gilchrist and the Minutemen because of the parade group’s bylaws that prohibit religious and political organizations.

"This parade has been put on by a civic association for the past 40 years," Quilter said. "Half the town is in it, and half the town watches. The intention is to combine love of country and love of community. It's meant to unify people in this very diverse coastal community.

"Parade organizers are "very sad this political organization has started this brouhaha. Jim is a political candidate and his organization pursues political goals," Quilter said.

"We have no connection with the day-labor center," Quilter said. "We have a number of community-service groups who do humanitarian relief work. These goals are who we are."

http://today.reuters.com

Minutemen barred from parade, sue California city
Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:51 PM ET

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Minuteman Project border patrol group sued a Southern California city on Friday after organizers of a "Patriots Day" parade refused to let it enter a float because the group was deemed too political.

The association putting on the parade in Laguna Beach, south of Los Angeles, questioned the sincerity of Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist, saying he was trying to "beat up on a small town civic organization" for political gain.

The lawsuit accuses the city and the Laguna Beach Patriots Day Association of discrimination because other political advocacy groups -- including one supporting illegal immigrants -- will be allowed to take part in the March 4 parade.

"If it's truly your position that you're neutral, then nonpolitical groups are allowed, no religious groups are allowed, then don't have them," Gilchrist said. "Or if you are, let everybody participate."

Gilchrist, who recently lost a bid for the U.S. Congress, and his Minutemen volunteer border and immigration activist group have become a lightning rod in the growing furor over illegal immigration and security at the border with Mexico.

"If it's a city of peace and tolerance, I think it's hypocritical to say that and promote that and be liberal and not allow different points view," Minuteman spokesman Tim Bueler said of the resort town and one-time artists' colony.

In addition to the group supporting illegal immigrants, Bueler said the parade would include another called Peace Vigil opposed to the war in Iraq and another he described as "pro-abortion."

Charles Quilter, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and member of the parade association, disputed that the other groups in the parade were overtly political.

He said his association debated whether to approve Peace Vigil's participation and ultimately allowed it only after concluding that peace was a "universal goal of humanity" and not a political position.

Quilter said the association was not supported by the city and his group's founding charter called for the parade to be free of political and religious statements.

"This is really all about getting Mr. Gilchrist and his organization publicity," he said. "It's really easy for a big, well-financed political organization to come in and beat up on a small town civic group with no assets and no staff."

http://www.latimes.com

Minutemen Sue Over Laguna Parade
Rules exclude 'political entries,' but the group says two participating groups are just that.
By Jennifer Delson
Times Staff Writer

January 28, 2006

The Minuteman Project, an illegal-immigrant patrol group excluded from a Laguna Beach parade, filed a lawsuit Friday saying that its free-speech rights had been violated.

At issue is the homespun 40th annual Patriots Day parade March 4. Organizers refused a Minuteman entry Jan. 19, saying it would violate the parade's 25-year-old bylaws that exclude "religious or political entries."

The Minuteman group is seeking to participate and is asking for $25,000 in damages for being excluded, plus legal fees.

"We are not asking the parade committee to exclude anyone. We want everyone to participate," Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist said at a news conference Friday. Organizers "have unfairly compared us to groups with a history of violence."

Gilchrist said his group's participants hope to wear red, white and blue in the parade and be accompanied by a truck. Regardless of what happens with the suit, he said, he expects that 1,200 Minuteman supporters will attend as spectators.

Charles J. Quilter II, vice president of the Patriots Day Parade Assn., said the lawsuit represented "a well-financed political organization taking on a civic group for their own purposes."

He said the association, led by a 16-person parade committee, operates with a $10,000 budget that pays for programs, trophies, insurance and band judges. It has neither an attorney nor funds to hire one, he said.

Filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court, the suit named as defendants the parade organizers, the city of Laguna Beach and two groups participating in the parade that the Minuteman group contends are political in nature.

The suit also contends that the parade association supports antiwar and pro-illegal immigrant philosophies and hates the Minuteman group's "philosophies and world view regardless of the fact that [its] beliefs in no way impinge on the purpose and history of the parade."

Laguna Beach has promoted the parade and supported it with police services, placing "itself in the position of no longer being neutral as to the 1st Amendment rights" of the Minuteman representatives, the suit said.

The parade includes many groups and individuals that could be considered political, the suit continued, such as the South Orange County Vietnam Veterans, the Orange County Gay Men's Chorus and elected officials, including the mayor.

The group will seek a preliminary injunction next week ordering the city to allow its participation, said Minuteman attorney Richard Ackerman, who is working on the case for free.

It is expected to be heard by Superior Court Judge Sheila Fell, he said.

City Atty. Phil Kohn said the city does not determine who is in the parade. If the Minuteman Project submitted an application to have a parade, the city would judge it fairly, he said.

In this case, however, the Minuteman complaint is not with a city application process, but with one developed by the parade association.

Minuteman "allegations do not concern me in the slightest …. The city is not a party against whom they could gain any relief," said Kohn.

The Minuteman group has staged citizen patrols at the Mexican border and participated in events, including ones in Laguna Beach, to protest illegal immigration and day laborer centers that give undocumented immigrants employ ment.

The two groups participating in the parade and named in the lawsuit are the Peace Vigil and the La Playa Center.

The Peace Vigil stages weekly protests against the Iraq war in Laguna Beach.

The La Playa Center, run by the Cross Cultural Council, offers English classes and child care.

The council also offers a day laborer center where immigrants can seek jobs, regardless of their immigration status.

Minuteman supporters including Gilchrist have protested the day laborer center.

Gilchrist's group contends the two groups are political in nature and that the Minutemen should be treated the same way. But parade organizers say the groups have participated in past years and avoided overt politicking such as political signs.

Kohn said the city and the groups were added to the lawsuit as part of the Minuteman group's effort to "intimidate and harass anybody and everybody instead of focusing on the legal issues."