Officially Lawless

The American people have seen a plethora of examples of the Federal Government going rogue in the last couple of years, particularly the Executive branch under the Obama Administration. Obama has made it plain that he intends to "go around" Congress and act by executive fiat. And there have been plenty of Agencies going rogue. One example is so-called "net neutrality," which Congress declined to authorize, and the FCC unilaterally pursued by bureaucratic fiat instead. Another example is Obama's unilateral declaration of a moratorium on oil rigs operating and drilling in the Gulf, after Obama sat on his hands and did nothing to help fight the Gulf oil spill; after a Federal Court ordered the moratorium lifted, the policy changed from outright denial of permits due to the drilling moratorium to a policy of "review," which indefinitely "delayed" their issuance.

The lawless actions of the Federal Government have moved to the next step now, however. A Federal Judge in Tennessee, Aleta Trauger, a Clinton nominee, has issued a Temporary Restraining Order preventing Tennessee State Officers from arresting Occupy protesters in Nashville's Legislative Plaza. Tennessee had attempted to institute rules regarding the use of the Plaza and bring some order to the Occupy protests by requiring permits and setting limits to occupancy.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/31/us/tennessee-occupy-protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

There are many examples of State (government) hostility to the Tea Party, where many regulatory barriers and burdens were employed to limit, if not prevent, the protests by setting regulatory barriers so high as to be impossible to meet. Tea Partiers were charged permit fees for daily occupancy, required to provide insurance coverage, provide security, and provide sanitation and clean-up services. Occupy has mostly been given a pass by the State on these same regulations; there are numerous reported instances of criminal activity at Occupy sites, and the Occupy protesters won't leave their sites even to allow sanitation and clean-up.

The media displays a shameless double-standard between coverage of the Tea Party, vilifying the participants as riotous, racist, bigoted, hillbilly wing-nuts, when none of those characteristics are displayed, as opposed to coverage of the Occupy movement, which is glorified as intelligent, clear-eyed, and well-planned, when likewise, none of those characteristics are displayed. The ACLU, self-proclaimed guardian of citizen's rights, and which represents the Occupy movement in this case, was notably silent on the issue of protecting political speech rights of the Tea Party from government interference. This shameless double-standard is also displayed in Judge Trauger's decision. The decision just gives official sanction and approval to the lawless protests of the left-wing, government-friendly Occupy movement.