ACLU Sues To Help
Ravers Get Their Glow Sticks Back, Civil-rights organization
fighting ban on rave accessories in New Orleans.
Clayton Smith is no longer on the Air Force Sabre Drill
Team, but he still enjoys creating new drills involving
dance and acrobatic moves, and he likes to test out his
routines at raves — leaving his sword at home, of course.
Now he's being told to leave his glow sticks and pacifier
there too, thanks to what the American Civil Liberties Union
is calling the government's "culture war against raves."
So Smith, fellow rave-goer Michael Behan and the ACLU
have asked a federal court to help ravers in New Orleans get
their glow sticks back. Their suit, filed Tuesday, also
seeks to stop the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency from banning
pacifiers, masks and chill rooms at a rave scheduled for
Friday.
"The government's ban on cultural symbols does nothing to
prevent drug use, while striking at the heart of First
Amendment freedoms. ... Dancing and music are protected by
the Constitution," Graham Boyd, director of the ACLU's Drug
Policy Litigation Project, said in a statement.
"It is time the American public realized that raves are
not the havens for rampant drug use that the government has
led them to believe and are in fact an established form of
youth culture," the statement said.
The events leading up to the lawsuit go back to January,
when the DEA sued the State Palace Theater's promoters under
the federal "crack house" law for holding raves at which
Ecstasy allegedly was consumed.
In May, the promoters, Rich and Brian Brunet, entered
into a plea bargain, paying $100,000 in fines and agreeing
to ban glow sticks, pacifiers, masks, personal massagers and
chill rooms from any future events, according to the
lawsuit.
On August 4, theater security confiscated glow sticks and
a pacifier from Smith and a hand-held massager from Behan,
an insurance agent who attends raves in a "Mr. Bunny"
costume and passes out candy.
Another plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit,
performance artist Steven McClure, has been warned by the
theater that his group cannot wear glow necklaces at a
planned March concert, the lawsuit says.
According to the suit, the banned items were categorized
as drug paraphernalia. "It is nonsensical to think that glow
sticks and masks can be used to ingest drugs," Boyd said in
his statement.
The ACLU is asking the court to issue an injunction that
would prevent the State Palace Theater from having to honor
the plea agreement during a rave scheduled for Friday.
A spokesperson for the DEA could not be reached for
comment.