Democrat-controlled legislatures are refusing to stop “insurrections” — that is, protests inside legislative facilities that aim to disrupt proceedings. In so doing, they may — unintentionally — be helping free hundreds of January 6 defendants from prison.
That is because many of those defendants were charged with “obstructing an official proceeding,” an obscure statute against witness tampering that was never aimed at protests but has been used as a catch-all to prosecute even non-violent offenders.
A challenge to the use — or abuse — of that statute will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court later this year. The case could affect hundreds of defendants — including former President Donald J. Trump, who has also been charged under the same provision.
Democrats use the word “insurrection” to describe the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021 — though only 8% of participants, according to a Harvard poll, wanted to overthrow the government. Many — rightly or wrongly — thought they were defending democracy.
The tactic of invading legislatures and holding protests there was pioneered by left-wing activists, and celebrated by Democrats — first in the occupation of the Wisconsin state legislature in 2011, and dozens of times since — even after the 2021 Capitol riot.
Such “insurrections” continue, including one last week at the Colorado legislature, and one that succeeded in shutting down the California State Assembly in Sacramento, without any arrests. Both protests were by radical left-wing groups that oppose Israel.
Supporters of the Colorado protest argued that demonstrations should be allowed inside legislatures, since they are public spaces funded by public money. If that is the reason most protesters have avoided arrests, it should apply to the right as well as the left.
In fact, by allowing such “insurrections” and “occupations” to proceed, other legislatures have shown that even if such protests are unlawful, and even if they disrupt “official proceedings,” they should not lead to prosecution, absent some other act of violence.
If the norm in state legislatures, especially Democrat-controlled ones, is not to treat unruly capitol protests as criminal behavior, that should factor into the Supreme Court’s reasoning when considering the constitutionality of the “obstructing” prosecutions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
