Protesting Torture Judges No Longer Permitted

By Susan Harman

I went to the 9th Circuit in San Francisco today to give Jay Bybee a piece of mind, as I've been doing for several years now. I watched him adjudicate a murder case, outraged at the innapropriateness of someone who's responsible for 100 (that we know of) men dying of torture, and indirectly for the million dead Iraqis and 5,000 dead American soldiers who were murdered because of lies wrung out of people by Bybee's torture, sitting in judgement over an 18 year-old kid who killed one person.

When the gavel came down, I stood and said, "Jay Bybee! Spain is coming after you for war crimes!" and four federal marshalls jumped on me. I was very surprised by their attack, because we negotiated an agreement after I was arrested in Seattle with the Chief Justice, Alex Kozinski, that we would not interrupt the cases, and the marshalls would let us be.

The marshall I know best came over and said, "Susan, calm down. This is what we told you in the email." "What email?" I asked. "The email we sent CodePink in December telling you that the judges are upset by your protests, and that the GSA [General Services Administration] has decided that you will be arrested if you protest again."

Evidently someone called the Court Executive, Cathy Catterson, because just then she appeared with a letter in her hand which says:

"December 13, 2011
To Whom It May Concern:
Effective immediately, the provisions of Title 41, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 102-74, Subpart C will be enforced in all Court of Appeals buildings within the Ninth Circuit. Specifically, please see subsection 102-74.390(a):
Disturbances. All persons entering in or on Federal property are prohibited from loitering, exhibiting disorderly conduct or exhibiting other conduct on property that:
(a) Creates loud or unusual noise or a nuisance,
A copy of the regulation is attached."

The marshall explained that they'd expected us the last time Bybee sat, back in December, which happened to be the only time we'd missed protesting him in years (including once in Alaska and once in Idaho). In December they were ready to explain everything to us, but we didn't show up. And I was a few minutes late today, and they didn't want to interrupt the proceedings, so they had again missed being able to inform me in advance of the new regulation. (I just checked my emails, and I don't see a notice from them.)
I haven't digested this news yet, but I'm pretty sure it's not good. More repression, less 1st Amendment, more fascism. This is how the Nazis did it, little law after little law, nibble, nibble.

If anyone has any ideas about how to respond to this, please speak while we still can.