PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked criminal enforcement of a new Arizona law that bans sales of items that use names of U.S. troops killed in Iraq without permission of their families.
The judge granted a request by a man who sells anti-war T-shirts displaying names of service members killed in Iraq. The T-shirts say “Bush Lied — They Died.”
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake says the shirts are political speech and criminal enforcement of the law would violate Flagstaff resident Dan Frazier’s First Amendment rights.
But Wake also says Frazier must serve his lawsuit on at least some families of casualties before the judge will consider whether to block part of the law that authorizes civil lawsuits.
