Supreme Court turns away January 6 defendant who challenged ‘picketing’ law under First Amendment

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal from John Nassif, a January 6 defendant who challenged a law that bans “parading, picketing, and demonstrating” at the US Capitol as a violation of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal from John Nassif, a January 6 defendant who challenged a law that bans “parading, picketing, and demonstrating” at the US Capitol as a violation of the First Amendment. Nassif, who was sentenced to seven months in prison for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack, argued that the charge “targets and criminally prohibits core First Amendment expression that is in no way disruptive.” Nassif’s lawyers said their client entered the Capitol nearly an hour after the building was breached and stayed for less than 10 minutes. After he was charged with four misdemeanor counts, he attempted to have the charge forbidding “parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building” dismissed. Lower courts, including the federal appeals court in Washington, DC, declined to do so. The appeals court ruled that the Capitol buildings are not a public forum open to protests. “Nassif has not established that the Capitol buildings are, by policy or practice, generally open for use by members of the public to voice whatever concerns they may have – much less to use for protests, pickets, or demonstrations,” a three-judge panel ruled.