story
Oct 6, 2005 1:59 pm US/Pacific
Woman Tossed Off Plane For Obscene Bush T-Shirt
(AP) RENO A woman was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight in Reno for wearing a T-shirt with the pictures of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and the F-word.(According to a Reno TV station, the caption under the pictures of Bush, Cheney, and Rice was "Meet the f*ckers". )
Lorrie Heasley of Woodland, Wash., said she plans to press a civil-rights complaint against the airline over Tuesday's action at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Heasley said she wore the T-shirt as a gag, and wanted her parents, both Democrats, to see it when they picked her up at the Portland, Ore., airport.
The 32-year-old lumber saleswoman said she thinks she had a right to wear it. "I just thought it was hilarious," Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war. Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane ... over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said the shirt became an issue after several passengers complained as they boarded.
After several conversations with flight attendants, Heasley agreed to cover the words with a sweatshirt.
When the sweatshirt slipped while she was trying to sleep, she was ordered to wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave. She and husband Ron chose to leave.
McInnis said Southwest rules allow the airline to deny boarding to any passenger whose clothing is "lewd, obscene or patently offensive." Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Las Vegas, said Heasley's T-shirt is "protected" political speech under the Constitution. The real issue, he said, is that the airline allowed her to wear the shirt onboard and then objected only when passengers complained. "That they changed rules in the middle of a flight simply because someone didn't like it ... might be problematic," Lichtenstein said.
The flight originated in Los Angeles before making the scheduled stop in Reno. No one from Southwest complained about the shirt at Los Angeles International Airport, and neither the pilot nor crew members objected when she boarded the aircraft, Heasley said.
Heasley said she has been in touch with ACLU lawyers in Seattle, and wants Southwest to reimburse her for the last leg of their trip. After the couple exited the plane, they were told they would only be reimbursed for taxes on the ticket, she said. She and her husband drove home Wednesday in a rental car.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said there are no federal rules concerning clothing on airlines. "It's up to the airlines who they want to take and by what rules," FAA spokesman Donn Walker told the Gazette-Journal. "The government just doesn't get into the business of what people wear on an aircraft."
? 2005 The Associated Press
Oct 6, 2005 1:59 pm US/Pacific
Woman Tossed Off Plane For Obscene Bush T-Shirt
(AP) RENO A woman was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight in Reno for wearing a T-shirt with the pictures of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and the F-word.(According to a Reno TV station, the caption under the pictures of Bush, Cheney, and Rice was "Meet the f*ckers". )
Lorrie Heasley of Woodland, Wash., said she plans to press a civil-rights complaint against the airline over Tuesday's action at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Heasley said she wore the T-shirt as a gag, and wanted her parents, both Democrats, to see it when they picked her up at the Portland, Ore., airport.
The 32-year-old lumber saleswoman said she thinks she had a right to wear it. "I just thought it was hilarious," Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war. Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane ... over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said the shirt became an issue after several passengers complained as they boarded.
After several conversations with flight attendants, Heasley agreed to cover the words with a sweatshirt.
When the sweatshirt slipped while she was trying to sleep, she was ordered to wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave. She and husband Ron chose to leave.
McInnis said Southwest rules allow the airline to deny boarding to any passenger whose clothing is "lewd, obscene or patently offensive." Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Las Vegas, said Heasley's T-shirt is "protected" political speech under the Constitution. The real issue, he said, is that the airline allowed her to wear the shirt onboard and then objected only when passengers complained. "That they changed rules in the middle of a flight simply because someone didn't like it ... might be problematic," Lichtenstein said.
The flight originated in Los Angeles before making the scheduled stop in Reno. No one from Southwest complained about the shirt at Los Angeles International Airport, and neither the pilot nor crew members objected when she boarded the aircraft, Heasley said.
Heasley said she has been in touch with ACLU lawyers in Seattle, and wants Southwest to reimburse her for the last leg of their trip. After the couple exited the plane, they were told they would only be reimbursed for taxes on the ticket, she said. She and her husband drove home Wednesday in a rental car.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said there are no federal rules concerning clothing on airlines. "It's up to the airlines who they want to take and by what rules," FAA spokesman Donn Walker told the Gazette-Journal. "The government just doesn't get into the business of what people wear on an aircraft."
? 2005 The Associated Press
