If this precedent in Iowa is allowed to stand and expand, it might be.

An Iowa State trooper who was investigated after it was shown that he forwarded an e-mail showing mug shots of people wearing Obama t-shirts has been suspended for 30 days.

Sgt. Rodney Hicok was at home and off-duty when he forwarded the e-mails, said an official with the Iowa Department of Public Safety Bureau and Professional Standards.

The e-mail made disparaging remarks about 15 people in the photos and referred to Obama as having "quite a fan base."

Hicok was not making a racial statement, the official said, but, rather, a political statement.

Hicock was also forced to make an apology for what the state acknowledges was his private, off-duty political speech regarding the President of the United States and his supporters.

Now I initially was not disturbed by this decision. After all, I wondered if he might have obtained the mug shots using his official position. Had that been the case, some punishment might have been appropriate.

But I did a little further digging (actually, I clicked the link at the end of the story that took me to the original story about the investigation). Look where he obtained the mug shots in question, and then tell me that this email was in any way a legitimate basis for any sort of punishment.

The e-mail has a photo that was originally posted on TheSmokingGun.com, according to the ISP, and it was forwarded by Hicok to colleagues inside and outside the department.

No misconduct there – the images in question came from a website that posts documents in the public domain. On what basis, therefore, is punishment being meted out against this trooper? Political speech is, by any standard, fully protected by the First Amendment – even if you are a police officer and even if the target you lampoon is the President and his supporters.

Unless, of course, the “Era of Hope’N’Change” includes the contraction and retraction of our civil liberties...

H/T Gateway Pundit, Malkin