Starvin Larry

WASHINGTON, DC – Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare its own ban on expressive First Amendment activity on the Supreme Court plaza unconstitutional. In asking the Court to hear the case of Hodge v. Talkin, Rutherford Institute attorneys argue that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s decision to uphold a 60-year-old federal statute criminalizing expressive First Amendment activity on the Supreme Court plaza conflicts with the high court’s own rulings regarding expressive activity in public elsewhere. For example, in 1972, the Supreme Court struck down limits on similar protests on the Capitol grounds, located across the street from the Court’s plaza. The Court of Appeals ruling was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by Rutherford Institute attorneys on behalf of activist Harold Hodge, who was arrested while standing silently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on…