New Laws Seek to Ban Iraq T-Shirt Sales

Constitutional Law

Posted Sep 24, 2007, 03:50 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

"Bush Lied. They Died."

Those words, on a T-shirt, along with the names of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in the Iraq war, have sparked outrage—and legislation in five states. They now ban the use of names of soldiers killed in Iraq for commercial purposes unless surviving family members consent, reports the Los Angeles Times. Similar legislation also has been introduced in both chambers of Congress.

The legislative ban started in Oklahoma and soon spread to Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Texas. A law professor tells the newspaper that the prohibition is probably trumped by the First Amendment's protection of political speech. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to block enforcement of the law in Arizona, the state in which Dan Frazier, the disabled man who sells the t-shirts, lives. However, local prosecutors have said they don't intend to pursue a case against Frazier, 42.

Parents of a number of soldiers killed in action object to the shirt, saying it's a political statement the soldiers would have disagreed with.

Frazier contends that American values such as free speech were what many soldiers were fighting for. But as lawyers argue the legality of the law in court, he has adopted an alternative approach to the dispute over the T-shirts, which he had been selling for $10.

"As other states considered adopting similar laws, the publicity drove up sales," the newspaper recounts. "Frazier posted ads on liberal blogs boasting: 'Our antiwar shirts are illegal.' He raised the price to $22."

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