Supreme Court to Hear Free Speech Argument From Man Arrested for Harsh Words to VP Cheney
- Posted on March 21, 2012 at 9:47pm by
Liz Klimas
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Steven Howards argues his case in Denver's district court. (Photo: New York Times/Kevin Moloney)
In 2006, Steven Howards was taken to jail after touching and having some harsh words with then Vice President Dick Cheney. These actions were seen as threatening by a Secret Service agent who arrested Howards later and presented him with a felony charge of assaulting the vice president. Howards’ wife bailed him out of jail and the charges were later dropped, but he didn’t let the issue die there.
Today, six years later, the Supreme Court will hear Howards’ case that his free speech rights were violated when he was taken to jail over words and a “pat” on the VP’s shoulder that he — and even some secret service agents on the scene — saw as non-threatening. Howards is suing the secret service agents who arrested him.
This case calls into question the issue if law enforcement can be subject to lawsuits for wrongly made snap decisions made while protecting elected officials.
First, here is some background on the scene, arrest and conflicting accounts in the court case that followed from NPR:
Most of what happened that day in 2006 is no longer in dispute. Steven Howards had just dropped off his eight-year-old son at a piano lesson in Beaver Creek, Colo., when he saw Vice President Cheney standing in the open shopping area near the ski lift, shaking hands and talking to people.
“I walked up to him and told him that I thought his policies in Iraq were disgusting, and I walked away, and then I left and picked up my child at piano camp,” says Howards.
About ten minutes later, Howards was back in the area, but had become separated from his son. The agents, who didn’t know Howards had lost track of his son, said they saw him looking anxious.
Agent [Virgil] Reichle of the Denver office went over to Howards and asked if he would answer a few questions about his conversation with Cheney. Howards said no and told Reichle that if he didn’t want people accosting Cheney, he should “keep Cheney out of public places.”
“The Secret Service agent got furious,” Howards says, adding that he quickly found himself handcuffed “with my hands behind my back and I was being charged with felony assault of the vice president.”
Even after the charges were dropped a week later, NPR reports, Howards said he got angrier thinking about the incident, which resulted in him being “depicted as a criminal” and tarnished his name. When Howards sought to sue the agents in 2007, Denver’s federal court of appeals said it believed the agent was justified in arresting Howards at the time. Howards counters saying that if what he said and the pat on the vice president were truly threatening, he would have been arrested on the spot, not 10 minutes later.
Things become sticky in conflicting reports from Secret Service agents if the actions were actually threatening. Reichle, the arresting agent, did not personally witness the event. NPR reports that two agents who did see Howards say Reichle asked them to change their story to imply the actions toward Cheney were threatening and would therefore merit the arrest:
But two other agents who actually witnessed the encounter between Howards and Cheney, did not support Reichle’s account of threatening behavior, and they said Reichle had asked them to change their reports to comport with Reichle’s version of events. Reichle has since been transferred to Guam.
Reichle, in his deposition, said he believed his fellow agents changed their story to avoid inconveniencing the vice president with a court case. “You would think if it was some sort of misunderstanding, somebody would have tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, [Virgil], slow down. What you think happened isn’t what happened,’” Reichle testified. “At no point did that happen.”
Today, Howards will tell the Supreme Court that he believes citizens should be free to express discontent to elected officials without retaliation from law enforcement. Whereas, the majority opinion of law enforcement — Secret Service in this case — is that actions taken to protect high-profile officials, especially the president and the vice president, should be exempt from lawsuits, even if it is later revealed they incorrectly evaluated the situation.
Last year when it was announced the Supreme Court would hear the case, the New York Times reported lawyers for the two agents being sued as saying that “concerns over personal liability for making a probable cause arrest should not weigh into agents’ decisions in the field.”
Listen to NPR’s coverage of the case here.
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RichardTeach
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 10:54pmIf Cheney was any type of a man, he would have told the USSS to drop the whole issue. But Cheney’s a ***** so what do you expect?
Report Post »lionslayer44
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 9:55pmobama’s secret service name is Renegade!! what do they know that they arent telling? BE PREPARED COLLECT FOOD, WATER (FILTERS), AMMO!!!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!
Report Post »Junter
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 8:55pmStill think we live in a democracy? Speak ill of the elite class and they will send their thugs after you.
“actions taken to protect high-profile officials, especially the president and the vice president, should be exempt from lawsuits, even if it is later revealed they incorrectly evaluated the situation.” Priceless!!
Report Post »Chriscee
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 2:25pmThese very arguments yesterday in the Supreme Court……It was a very interesting listen. And what Gallagher said…..was……the court looked to be favoring the Secret Service agents and reminded Rosen…that the Supreme Court Judges are also protected by the Secret Service.
I believe Steve Howard has opened a can worms he is going to wish he hadn’t
Report Post »Chriscee
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 2:21pmWhat the article fails to tell you…..is that this Steve Howard….before all of this went down…..was sitting on a park bench..in Beaver Creek and saw Dick Cheney come out of a store. He called his wife and told her he was there and that he was going to go ask him “why he has killed so many children.”. What Howard didn’t know…that sitting next to him on the park bench was an undercover Secret Service agent who informed the other agents near Dick Cheney.
I was listening to the Mike Rosen show this morning on radio KOA 850 in Denver and Reichle’s attorney Sean Gallagher was being interviewed by Mike Rosen. Rosen was also in the supreme court yesterday listening to these very arguement.s
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 10:43amYou think you could even get THAT CLOSE to Obama or Biden without being tackled to the GROUND? You can’t OPPOSE anything they do, at all. They hunt you down. hahaha Liberals only get mad when the same rules apply to THEM. When it’s the other side, it’s ok. Americans better UNITE or we will ALL lose our freedoms.
Report Post »No Quarter
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 10:34amHope they get this crooked cop/agent into jail for asking other agents to lie for him. I also HOPE this leads to more lawsuits against cops who arrest and detain people due to their ego trips and brotherly cover-ups.
Remember Ruby Ridge
Report Post »RED-DAWN
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:44amAs a former law enforcement officer, with friends that work with the Secret Service, I agree this man, if his actions were threatening, should have been arrested on the spot. When the agent approached him ten minutes later and asked if he would answer a few questions, Mr. Howard exercised his right to say NO. Therein lies the problem, the agent was at that point PI$$ED OFF and he made an emotional decision rather than one based on sound judgement. I can see the wheels turning in his head as he pondered the question: Does this guy not know who I am? Does he think he can just walk away from a Government Agent? I’ll show him, and he did.
It’s the old law enforcement way, You Might Beat The Wrap BUT, You Can’t Beat The Ride!
Enjoy GUAM…..
Report Post »amdoktor
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 8:39amIts the same agenda with all our freedoms, the police, secret service, and all enforcement have been pushing the bubble for control, intimidation and power. They threaten you if you film them while on public property, threaten arrest if you don’t answer there pointed questions or ask them a question. We are approaching a police state mentality a little more each day. It is up to the American citizens to remain vigil and state your rights. The more power we allow government to take the less power we as citizens have.
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 6:14amThis is a very difficult one to call. Good luck to the Supreme Court on this one.
As I started thinking about it I immediately recalled the attempted murder of Rep. Giffords, among less recent incidents, so on the one hand I would support the Secret Service’s sensible erring on the side of caution.
On the other hand, the arrest was well after the fact, so clearly the VP’s protection did not see a threat. And is a “pat” more threatening than a handshake which can be used to draw a victim closer?
Overarching this is the primacy of free speech.
At the end of the day I end up uncomfortably on Mr Howards’ side, but whichever way the court goes, it will set an awkward precedent.
Perhaps one course of action might be to acknowledge the wrongful arrest, expunge Mr Howards’ record of this event, but decline any compensation. Agent Reichle is already in Guam (Guam! I‘ll bet he didn’t request that) which gives me the idea that perhaps there is something more to his story.
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:13amActually, it is an easy call. Had they arrested him when he laid his hands on the VP, than it would be justifiable. But, they arrested him later, after it was obviously not an attempt to assault the VP They violated his rights. If they were concerned because of his “agitation” they could have escorted him out of the area. He will win the supreme court decision.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:30amVery easy call. He has the right to speak his mind. He does not have the right to lay hands on the VP. As soon as it was over, he should have never been arrested or even questioned.
But we have a Police State that verges on the Gestapo, so these things will soon turn into the thought police patrols…
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:33amI see your point and I hope that you’re right, but I think that it is legitimate (though not in this case) to interrogate and/or secure someone who is looking nervous or otherwise suspicious. Particularly so if the has already been a discordant approach.
I was thinking more of the impact that the decision will have down the track. It would be a terrible thing if a principal was attacked because the protecting agents were indecisive or distracted by concerns of later blowback.
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:35amSorry that should have been headed @Hidden Lion
Report Post »JQCitizen
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 2:45amThis man deserved what happened to him for LAYING A HAND on a Vice President of the United States, in ANY WAY. WHAT was he thinking? It does seem odd that they didn’t cuff him on the spot, but I don’t think any law-abiding clear-thinking citizen should feel so casual as to include ” Free-Touching“ with their ”Free Speech”.
Believe-you-me, there are plenty of people who feel that way about Joe Biden, and Barak Obama, but they would NOT be justified on letting loose with those feelings. I partially blame the Democrats, and Hollywood, and their willing accomplices in the Media who did NOT hold them accountable for their HATEFUL RHETORIC against Cheney. It encourages slightly un-balanced people like this man to feel justified in foolish acts like this.
Report Post »Sleazy Hippo
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 11:16amVice President Cheney was in a public area “shaking hands.“ Nobody was ”LAYING A HAND” on him, which your all caps treatment implies violent contact with that neocon chicken hawk who sent our brave boys and girls to their deaths without blinking.
Report Post »KevINtampa
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 2:25amNowadays they don’t have to arrest you so this case is moot. All they have to do is consider that you might be a terrorist and you go away. Your family tells your local police your missing, they search, but of course never find you. All the while your sit in Guantanamo or an Alaskan Gulag for 15 years going crazy and mumbling largely incoherently over and over that you have a right to a phone call and an attorney.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 7:34amYep…If they had NDAA back then we would have possibly never heard from this guy again.
Report Post »I hope they send me somewhere besides Alaska though…I get cold easily.
I pity the guards that have to be in the same building with me. They will hear the Constitution read to them over and over again. I will drive them insane.