When a protester disrupted a U.S. Supreme Court session recently — and a collaborator secretly filmed and posted the episode on YouTube — it caused a sensation inside the nation’s highest and shyest court.
Almost immediately, conventional wisdom concluded that Feb. 26 incident would set back the campaign to persuade the court to allow cameras to record its proceedings. The presence of video inside the court only encouraged the shouter, the theory went, and allowing cameras in on a regular basis would turn arguments into a circus. Noah Newkirk was arrested for violating a federal law that bars making a “harangue or oration” inside the building. The identity of the photographer is still unknown.
