Don't miss GW Law Professor Jonathan Turley's op-ed in the LA Times, "Students, Nuns and Sailor-Mongers, Beware: Ashcroft is pulling out all the stops to prosecute protesters."

Turley takes Ashcroft on for the Miami prosecution of Greenpeace under an obscure law (last week we wrote about the details of the case ). Turley opines:

The Greenpeace case is particularly chilling because of the extraordinary effort to find a law that could be used to pursue the organization. The 1872 law is a legal relic that must have required much archeological digging through law books to find.

The extraordinary effort made to find and use this obscure law strongly suggests a campaign of selective prosecution — the greatest scourge of the 1st Amendment. Greenpeace was engaged in a classic protest used by countless organizations, from those of the civil rights movement to anti-abortion groups. It is a way for citizens to express their opposition by literally standing in the path of the government.

...Unless deterred by Congress or the courts, Ashcroft will continue his campaign to protect Americans from the ravages of free speech. If he succeeds, it will not be sailors but free speech that will be shanghaied in Miami.