Daily Record News Briefs: October 21, 2008

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Oct 21, 2008

Harford's hand-held sign rule on hold

Harford County has agreed to stop requiring a permit for hand- held signs while a constitutional challenge to the law is pending. Judge Richard D. Bennett signed the consent agreement in the lawsuit filed by three pro-life protesters. Angela Swagler, Elizabeth Walsh and Joan Walsh filed suit in U.S. District Court on Sept. 3, alleging they were illegally detained and searched in a "sexually intrusive manner" after participating in Defend Life's Face the Truth tour in Bel Air on Aug. 1. The women, ages 18, 20 and 18, were among 18 people arrested but never charged with violating the permit law; other charges, such as loitering, were nol prossed, the complaint says.

ACLU backs librarians on penguin book

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland has voiced its support for the Calvert County Public Library's refusal to move a children's book about a penguin family, "And Tango Makes Three," to the adult section. The picture book tells the true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo who fostered and hatched an abandoned egg. Parents who sought to have the book moved have appealed the library's decision to the County Board of Commissioners and the Library's Board of Trustees. The ACLU has written to both boards, encouraging them to "stand...against censorship and intolerance."