Woman faces a year in prison after laughing at Jeff Sessions

[yuiyoshida]

Link to tweet

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a notorious racist. He prosecuted a former aide to Martin Luther King, Jr. after the former aide helped black voters cast ballots. He once claimed that immigrants “create cultural problems.” The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in 1986 to deny him a federal judgeship due to concerns that he is racist. At the time, Coretta Scott King wrote a letter opposing his nomination, arguing that Sessions could have a “devastating effect” on her husband’s goals of advancing racial equality.

So, when Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) claimed at Sessions’ most recent confirmation hearing that Sessions’ record of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented,” Desiree A. Fairooz, a spectator who says she attended the hearing in silent protest, let out a chuckle.

For this chuckle, she was arrested, dragged out of the hearing by Capitol police, and eventually convicted of disorderly conduct and “parading or demonstrating on Capitol grounds.” She could receive up to a year in prison.

Fairooz claims that the laugh that led to her arrest was “spontaneous” and not a premeditated effort to disrupt the hearing.

As a constitutional matter, Congress does have the lawful authority to prevent its business from being disrupted. The First Amendment permits certain “time, place, and manner” restrictions on speech, and that can include the power to remove a protester who prevents the government from conducting its business. Fairooz didn’t help her case by loudly protesting her arrest while it was happening.

more...
https://thinkprogress.org/woman-faces-a-year-in-prison-after-laughing-at-jeff-sessions-8ce8ff1f9ed1

[elleng]

1. Is It a Crime to Laugh at a Congressional Hearing? A Jury Decided. edited

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9010502

[bobGandolf]

2. What a flamer! Can give, but not take... n/t

[dhill926]

5. uh huh...nice try...

[SwissTony]

7. What if a speaker at a Senate hearing actually made a joke?

Or meant to say the word "shirt" but accidentally left out the "r"?

Who decides when and if a laugh is appropriate?

And if it's inappropriate, why not just take the offender out of the room/building and not let him/her back inside?

Does the punishment fit the "crime"?

[ADX]

4. It makes my blood boil...

...to know that a woman can be arrested, charged and convicted of disorderly conduct merely for laughing during Sessions' confirmation hearing but a congressman can scream "Liar!" at President Obama during a televised address before a joint session of Congress and get away with it scot-free.

[Solly Mack]

6. Fuck Jefferson Beauregard - It's sedition if you laugh at me - Sessions