U.S. Supreme Court,
Constitutional Law
Sep. 16, 2015
Speech isn't so free in DC
The D.C. Circuit was wrong in a recent decision upholding a ban on speech activities in the plaza in front of the Supreme Court.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).
If any place should be available for peaceful, non-disruptive protests, it is the plaza in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, in a recent decision, Hodge v. Talkin (Aug. 28, 2015), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit came to exactly the opposite conclusion and upheld a ban on speech activities in the court's plaza. This is the elevated marble terrace running from the sidewalk in front of the court to the staircase tha...
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