ACLU Representative Defends His Constitutional Right to Make No Sense

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Published: June 1, 2009

SEATTLE – A volunteer trying to elicit donations for the American Civil Liberties Union Friday assaulted several passers-by with his nonsensical rambling.

Samantha Marshall described her harrowing experience:

He called out at me, “Do you support same sex marriage?” and when I stopped and said I did, he talked about the Bush administration’s condoning illegal wire tapping of American citizens. He just went on and on. But just as I started to wonder if he realized that this was old news, he started complaining about how the Mormons were responsible for the failure of Prop 8 and how California was usually ahead of the rest of the country on political issues. When I pointed out that New England seems to have overtaken the West Coast as the most liberal part of the country, at least when it comes to gay marriage, he babbled about how he’s a Libertarian who recently moved from Alaska. Then he pressured me to donate money. I mumbled something about picking my cat up from the vet and made my escape. It was so traumatic.

The Seattle police arrested the volunteer, Brian Madison, after receiving several complaints from people who said he’d harassed them with his illogical and rambling rants. From his jail cell, Mr. Madison argued that he had the right to free speech before randomly changing the subject and passionately speaking out against the anti-union practices of Wal-Mart.