Some folks wonder if there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. However, I remain skeptical whether there is intelligent life on Earth. Case in point, the continuing war on t-shirts—which, I’ll grant you, is probably far easier and cheaper to fight than the war on terror. But it’s just so much ado about nothing. And, ultimately, it only makes the fashion (or is that fascist?) police look bad. Anyway, here’s the latest series of incidents.
From the [Melbourne, Australia] Herald Sun:
Banned for a George Bush T-shirt
AN Australian was barred from a London-Melbourne flight unless he removed a T-shirt depicting George Bush as the world’s number one terrorist.
Allen Jasson was also prevented from catching a connecting flight within Australia later the same day unless he removed the offending T-shirt.
Mr Jasson says Qantas and Virgin Blue were engaging in censorship but the airlines say the T-shirt was a security issue and could affect the sensitivities of other passengers. [full text]
From the Denver Post:
Littleton – A fight over a new Wal-Mart is turning into a battle over free speech after opponents were told to put down their signs and take off their buttons and T-shirts in city hall last week.
“We felt like we were being railroaded,” said Robert Davis, 65, who was forced to turn his “Littleton Against Wal-Mart” shirt inside out. “This flies in the face of the First Amendment.”
A half-dozen or more police officers told numerous opponents to remove or cover their regalia or leave, according to witnesses. [full text]
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
It’s bigotry that should be silenced
A couple of months ago, Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi architect and blogger, was heading from JFK Airport in New York to Oakland, Calif. He was approached by two Transportation Security Administration workers and two JetBlue employees. They said he could not get on the flight wearing the T-shirt he had on. His shirt read, “We will not be silent.”
He asked what the problem was. It was not the English words that bothered them, but the Arabic script above it.
Jarrar said it was simply the Arabic translation of the English. He said the officials countered that they didn’t have a translator, so they couldn’t be sure.
They handed him another T-shirt, and said if he wanted to fly he had to wear it over his own. He put it on, and they escorted him onto the plane. Not to his assigned seat at the front of the plane, but to the back of the bus, I mean, plane. [full text]
These are not isolated incidents. There have been multiple such “interventions” in the last year or so, including the well-publicized rousting of Cindy Sheehan prior to the State of the Union address and the arrest of a West Virginia couple at a Bush rally in 2004. Has the world gone mad, or is it just plain stupid intolerance?
Kmareka.com 
I can’t speak to the law in Australia, but it seems quite clear that the episode from Denver explicitly contravenes establish First Amendment law. In 1971, the Supreme Court decided the case of Cohen v. California. Mr. Cohen had been arrested for entering a state courthouse wearing a jacket with the words “F— the Draft” in bold letters on the back. He was convicted of disturbing the peace.
The Supreme Court overturned his conviction, holding the state could not legitimately bar a person from wearing clothing just because it was vulgar or offensive (absent a showing that the clothing was so offensive that it would incite an ordinary person to a violent reaction). This opinion, and a few other historic First Amendment cases, are among my favorite expositions of the concept of American liberty. Among my favorite passages from this opinion:
“It is nevertheless often true that one man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric.”
“That the air may at times be filled with verbal cacaphony is, in this sense not a sign of weakness but of strength.”
“We can not indulge the facile assumption that one can forbid particular words without also running a substantial risk of suppressing ideas in the process.”
If Mr. Davis was forced, by state or local authorities, to turn a “Littleton against Wal-Mart” shirt inside out before entering city hall, his constitutional rights were clearly violated.
Should that happen to you in the future, I would recommend that you inform the individual attempting to force you to remove the allegedly offensive clothing that Title 42 of the United States Code, Section 1983, prohibits the violation of a constitutional right under color of state law and provides a mechanism by which the victim can sue the offender in federal court.
Let them come. Let them come. The greatest advances for freedom have happened in the face of oppression. How sad are the haters of freedom when they fear a t-shirt? How strong are we when we wear it anyway? Let them come. Let them come.
One of the guys I work with has an amazing collection of t-shirts that say satirical/mental-healthy things like “I just do what my rice krispies tell me to,” and “I’m the person your parents warned you about.” Not surprisingly, he also does amazing work with the kids and is one of the most dedicated people I’ve met. His sense of humor, irony and resistance to cultural norms is something that adds great value to our environment. This is not the same thing as the people above, but it speaks to the way in which tolerance for people’s differences can be enriching and helpful.