freedom of speech

Whether New Mexico’s Catholic Church is on the side of Democrats or Republicans when it comes to issues like abortion, homosexuality and capital punishment, is beside the point. The issue isn’t ideology; it’s law: Is the church or is it not violating the constitutional separation of church and state?

It was March 20, 2003, and hundreds of people were peacefully protesting the Iraq war in front of the University Bookstore in Albuquerque. One of the protestors, an Albuquerque family practice doctor named John Fogarty, was beating a drum to express his opposition to a war he believed would bring needless injury and death to thousands of American troops, not to mention Iraqi civilians.