Presidential T-Shirts Contested

Residents of Chappaqua, N.Y., figured it would be okay to use the presidential seal for the sake of a fundraiser. After all, the First Family had just bought a home in their community, and they'll be living there when President Clinton leaves office.

As CBS News Entertainment Reporter Mark McEwen reports, they figured wrong.

The T-shirts, which were being sold by the Horace Greeley Educational Fund in Chappaqua, bear the seal with the words "Secret Service, Chappaqua Bureau, Presidential Detail" underneath.

But the White House has ordered the group to stop making the shirts because the seal is protected by government statute. Unauthorized use of the seal can be punishable by up to six months in jail.

Robert Bernstein, the education fund's president, received the warning letter from the White House Counsel.

Robert Bernstein won't be selling any more T-shirts with the presidential seal.

When asked if receiving this stern letter tightened up his innards, Bernstein admitted it had.

The group had been selling the shirts briskly at $15 apiece. The first 11 dozen Chappaqua shirts sold out in September, and more orders were coming in. But now, "We have to give them away," said Bernstein.

"When we heard the president was moving in, we thought, 'Oh, we should do a shirt for Chappaqua,'" said Wendy S. Nolan, a real estate broker. She said she got the idea from a similar shirt she saw on Rhode Island's Block Island following a presidential visit there.

White House counsel spokesman Jim Kennedy said that, even though "We always try to do whatever we can to benefit education," there was no exception for charitable uses of the seal. The counsel's office sends out 60 to 100 similar notices each year, he said.

Bernstein said that Kennedy told him there was nothing wrong with giving the rest of the shirts away.

Since the first lady is expected to make education a central issue in her likely U.S. Senate campaign, perhaps she "can make up the difference," Bernstein said.