Or Arizona DAY StarKKK can wear hoods at rally, judges say
I NEW YORK (AP) - Federal judges ruled yesterday that the Ku Klux Klan can stage a Manhattan rally wearing their white hoods, focusing on the group's First Amendment right to free speech.
The judges sidestepped a discussion of the city's attempt to force Klan members to unmask by invoking a rarely used 1845 state law that bars groups from congregating in public places in masks or disguises, except for authorized parties or entertainment.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said it was true that the hood itself over the years had reflected hatred and fear but that it also had
protected those who wore it from the wrath of those who hate their message.
"I feel a Constitutional right was upheld," the Rev. Jeffrey L. Berry, 46, of Butler, Ind., said after -yesterday's verbal ruling from the bench by federal judges Hellerstein and Harold Baer Jr. Berry is national imperial wizard for the KKK's Church of the American Knights.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani criticized the ruling, calling it "another example of the ideology extended from the '60s."
" This ruling says people don't have to take responsibility for What they say or what they do
even as they support organizations that encourage anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, racism and hatred,". Giuliani said in a written statement. The city planned to appeal.
The New York Civil Liberties Union sued Tuesday on behalf of the KKK after the city refused to grant it a permit unless the 50 to 80 participants expected agreed not to wear their traditional white hoods.
Among those supporting the KKK's right to march were activist Al Sharpton's National Action Network and the Amsterdam News, a newspaper that calls itself a "significant voice of Black America."