On Feb. 26, 2014, Noah Kai Newkirk said a few words at the Supreme Court of the United States. The problem was that he was not supposed to be speaking; he was there as a spectator.
His words—a few brief sentences—also had nothing to do with the case being argued (concerning attorney fees in patent cases), but rather were a protest over the court’s Citizens United v. F.E.C. campaign finance case from 2010. Corporations, he observed, are not people and don’t have First Amendment rights. The marshals promptly ushered him out of the courtroom, and he was arrested and charged with a criminal offense in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
