Secret Service agents had been within their rights to move protesters in 2004 because they were a threat to then-president George W. Bush, the US Supreme Court said today.
The officers' action in Jacksonville, Oregon that year did not violate the demonstrators' freedom of expression, the US top court unanimously ruled.
Protesters launched their free-speech case after being forced away from Bush as he went on the campaign trail for re-election, while they argued, Bush supporters had been allowed to stay put.
Throwing out the case, the court found that "because of their location, the protesters posed a potential security risk to the president, while the supporters, because of their location, did not."
Agents protecting the president should not be forbidden from acting quickly if safety is at risk, it said.
