First Amendment on Fifth Ave

Last April, a man tried to jump off the Empire State Building with a parachute before security guards stopped him.

This story contains my favorite exchange of quotations in today’s paper.

“This gentleman, I maintain, is an artist and has freedom of expression,” Mr. Heller [the man’s lawyer] said. “His art is not with pen or music; his art is with his body movement.”

Officials from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to comment, save for one who muttered, “I wouldn’t want his freedom of expression to land on my head.”