We disrupted the U.S. Supreme Court to protest money in politics.

[mia]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=NjnIajVvWDQ

In April of 2015, four friends and I disrupted the U.S. Supreme Court on the anniversary of McCUTCHEON v. FEC (one of many decisions gutting restrictions on political donations) to remind the court of its duty to uphold the principle of “one person, one vote.” We face a sentence of 10–16 months in prison and $100,000 fine. We’ll be sentenced Monday, July 24th.

This is my statement to the court:
Each time we return to this courtroom, I’m struck by the silence. Much like the Supreme Court chamber, it reminds me of being in a church. It isn’t easy, in my experience, to break that silence, to go into a church and raise one’s voice, as I’m doing now and as we did over two years ago. It flies totally in the face of one’s cultural conditioning to stand up and disrupt the service, and I don’t think any of my friends or I did so with any great pleasure, but only trepidation, and a feeling of obligation in our role as citizens; the same sense of duty that I’m sure motivates the members of the court, and deriving from the same faith in the law.

The numerous times we’ve been called back to appear in this courtroom over the past couple of years, sometimes for only a 15-minute hearing to say, “Yes, your honor, I understand,” have been costly and frustrating, to be honest, but I appreciate that the reason for summoning us was always a meticulous attention to process, and fairness. I may disagree with the government’s zealous prosecution of our case, the multitude of lawyers and resources assigned to the overturn of our appeal, and the incredibly thorough Presentencing Investigation Report scrutinizing my life, such as it is, but I have no complaint whatsoever with the deliberativeness of the court. Citizens in a functioning democracy don’t require that the outcome favor them, only that the process be fair.

And that, fundamentally, is why we disrupted the Supreme Court: to warn that the public was losing faith in the fairness and integrity of its government....

https://medium.com/@mattkresling/we-disrupted-the-u-s-601a96d947b5

[Dustlawyer]

1. Best of luck, equity, and justice!

Thank you for your service to us all. No issue in D.C., whether it is Climate Change, education, health care... will be resolved in the best interest of American citizens until we get rid of all of the money in D.C. We lost Representative Democracy a long time ago. Politicians represent Donors, not Constituents.