Problems on the Supreme Court’s Literal Doorstep

Alex Zhou

10/31/14

Period 2AB

Problems on the Supreme Court’s Literal Doorstep

Despite recent rulings that allow protests at a soldier’s funeral and strike down buffer zones around abortion clinics, the Supreme Court’s treatment of free speech on its own plaza is inconsistent. The court has been known to inhibit free speech on the plaza, and only last year a federal judge struck down the law banning protests on the plaza. Pamela Talkin, the marshal of the Supreme Court, appealed the decision, and arguments were heard last month. The Constitutional debate going on now is concerned with whether or not the current restriction is in accordance with the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court’s main argument for its position is that “demonstrations outside courthouses might give rise to actual or apparent efforts to subject judicial officers to improper influence.” When the Founding Fathers established the First Amendment, it was created as a form of protection from oppressive censorship and regulated religion, in addition to protecting states’ rights. Many consider elective enforcement of a ruling as nothing more than censored speech, which the court has now taken to calling “improper influence.”  The ideas that inspired the American Revolution would have been considered an improper influence under the monarchical rule of Great Britain, but these very ideas formed and shaped our country’s ideals and constitution. As Jefferson himself said, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” So why are we limiting our liberties at the very institution that seeks to defend them?

Quotes

“But of course the justices don’t really have to deal with protesters, and especially not sidewalk counselors, for a simple reason: They park on the property, in an underground garage. If they see a protester, it’s for a brief moment, separated by glass and metal… the result is that doctrines that protect free speech on government property — sidewalks, parks, public schools — end up exacerbating the already substantial differences between the experiences of the poorer and the richer.”

        -Eugene Volokh