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Several times Professor Deborah Lipstadt publicly claimed that Mr Irving lied in stating that he lectured an Atlanta audience in Atlanta's DeKalb County Courthouse on November 4, 1993. She bragged that he was only able to speak to people from the courthouse steps. This may have been the intention of her circle of friends, the traditional enemies of Free Speech, who pressured the courthouse officials into cancelling the hire agreement for the courthouse that day -- their usual method of suppressing free debate. Mr Irving and his attorneys however secured an immediate injunction (the Court Order below) forcing the courthouse to honour their obligations, and the meeting went ahead, inside the former courthouse, as planned. So . . . who lied? Mr Irving, or Professor Lipstadt? | |||||||||
FILED
IN CLERK'S OFFICE NOV 4 1993 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA ATLANTA DIVISION
LUTHER D THOMAS,
Clerk ATLANTA COMMITTEE FOR VERSUS CIVIL NO. 1:93-CV-2519-WCO RICHARD JUGAR, COURT The plaintiffs in the captioned case have filed a complaint and a motion for temporary restraining order. Notice has been given to the defendant, who appeared with counsel. The court has heard from both sides. It appears that the defendant, the court administrator for DeKalb County Courthouse in Decatur, is acting under color of state law. The defendant has previously authorized a meeting sponsored by the Atlanta Committee for Historical Review for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, November 4, 1993, and then rescinded that authority because of protests about the subject matter and content to be presented. It appears that the meeting room is used as a public forum. Such action by the defendant, if carried out, would be a violation of the rights of the plaintiffs under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It therefore appears to the court that justice would require and demand that the defendant be restrained and enjoined from denying or violating the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs. The defendant, his agents, servants, employees, attorneys and all those persons in active concert or participation with him who receive actual notice of this order by personal service or otherwise, are hereby enjoined and restrained from cancelling the permitted use of the public meeting room on the first floor of the DeKalb County Courthouse by the Atlanta Committee for Historical Review scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, November 4, 1993. This order is conditioned on payment by plaintiff to defendant of $150.00. IT IS SO ORDERED this 4th day of November, at 5:45 p.m. [Signature] WILLIAM C. O'KELLEY | |||||||||
The $150 referred to in the last sentence was the hire fee for the courthouse chamber. On Wednesday, June 16, 1999 we received this e-mail from reader Charles G.: "Interesting that Judge William O'Kelley wrote the court order. I took time off from work and attended that lecture, given fully within the courthouse, of course. Judge O'Kelley was employed by my father briefly about 1960 as a youngish lawyer. Dad, Edgar Crawford Gentry (1915-1992), was a graduate of Emory Law School (1938) and an unreconstructed Southerner, with a passion for history and excellent English usage, and no hint of anti-Jewish sentiment. "Mr. O'Kelley," as we kids knew him then, and Teeny, his wife, were of course good friends of my parents.--Charles G." |
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