A federal judge is permanently barring Arizona from using a state law to prosecute an online merchant who sells shirts that list names of thousands of troops killed in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake doesn't strike down the 2007 law against use of military casualties' names for commercial purposes without families' permission as flatly unconstitutional.
But Wake says it'd violate Flagstaff online merchant Dan Frazier's First Amendment rights. The ruling says that's because Frazier's "Bush Lied -- They Died" shirts are "core political speech" protected by the First Amendment.
Arizona's law was enacted with little debate by the Legislature last year.
Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas have enacted similar laws.
