CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A couple arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts to the president's July 4 appearance at the West Virginia Capitol filed a federal lawsuit yesterday alleging their First Amendment rights were violated.

Nicole and Jeff Rank were removed from the event in handcuffs after revealing T-shirts with President Bush's name crossed out on the front. Nicole Rank's shirt had the words "Love America, Hate Bush" on the back and Jeff Rank's had "Regime change starts at home" on the back.

Their lawsuit was filed in federal court in Charleston by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys. It names Gregory Jenkins, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Presidential Advance, and W. Ralph Basham, director of the U.S. Secret Service, as defendants.

"What is at stake here transcends politics," Jeff Rank said at a news conference at the Capitol. "What is at stake is the right of all Americans — Democrats, Republicans and Independents, all Americans — to peacefully voice their dissent to their government."

He said although he and his wife had never participated in a political protest before, they believed the lawsuit was necessary because, "unless common citizens like ourselves are willing to stand and fight for their civil liberties, those very liberties our great nation was founded upon, ideals of freedom that keep us strong today, will wither and erode until they are gone forever."

The couple wants a judge to declare unconstitutional any policy that led to their arrest. They also are seeking unspecified monetary damages for emotional harm they suffered.

Spokesmen for the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Justice, to whom a White House spokesman directed questions, refused to comment. Both said their agencies did not comment on ongoing litigation.

Trespassing charges filed against the couple by Charleston police officers after they were removed from the event were later dismissed because a municipal judge determined city trespassing ordinances do not apply to Statehouse grounds. City Council and Mayor Danny Jones have publicly apologized to the Ranks.

Jones, a Republican, has said the police officers who arrested the Ranks were told to do so by Secret Service agents.

Charles Bopp, a spokesman for the Secret Service, had previously said his agency did not direct the arrests.

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit last September against the Secret Service, seeking an injunction against the Bush administration for segregating protesters at his public appearances. The Secret Service agreed to stop the practice.

Bush's appearance in West Virginia was an official visit and not a campaign event.

The lawsuit said the Ranks obtained free tickets to the July 4 event. Information they received with the tickets specified items they were not allowed to bring, such as coolers and lawn chairs, but did not say anything about clothing. Nicole Rank received an e-mail at work that said, "there is no specified dress code."

Jeff Rank said he and his wife wore the T-shirts because, "When you see the president speak on TV he is usually shown surrounded by fervent supporters only. While we wanted to hear him out and while we wanted to see him in person, we did not want to be added to the tally of Bush supporters that day."

They were not shouting or heckling, did not lie down in protest and did not resist arrest, Jeff Rank said.

While the Ranks were put in handcuffs, fingerprinted and spent two hours in jail, other people at the event who wore Bush campaign T-shirts and buttons were not bothered, said Andrew Schneider, the executive director of the ACLU in West Virginia.

"Presidents cannot be insulated from dissent," Schneider said.

Although Nicole Rank, 30 and a registered Democrat, initially was dismissed from her job with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, she was rehired after the charges were dropped. She now is on an assignment in Richmond, Va.

The Ranks had been living in Corpus Christi, Texas, and were in West Virginia because of Nicole Rank's FEMA assignment. They have since moved to Charleston. Jeff Rank, 29 and a registered Republican, is a math and science tutor at the University of Charleston.