When Steven Howards spotted Vice President Dick Cheney in a mall in Beaver Creek, CO, in June 2006, he decided to give him a piece of his mind over the Iraq War. But after approaching Cheney, Howards found himself being hauled off by Secret Service agents and thrown into a local jail for “assaulting” the vice president. According to Howards, he patted Cheney on the left shoulder and told him the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq were “disgusting.” Howards wound up spending only three hours in jail, and the local prosecutor ultimately dropped the case after being told the White House didn’t want to pursue a conviction. But the matter was far from over. Howards filed a lawsuit against the four Secret Service agents involved in the arrest, contending his arrest was retaliation for publicly rebuking Cheney and that his right to free speech had been violated.