The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday rejected a challenge [order list, PDF] to a law that bans protests on the marble plaza in front of the courthouse. In their decision to deny the petition in Hodge v. Talkin [docket], the court left in place a ruling [JURIST report] by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website], which found that the law does not violate the First Amendment [Cornell LII backgrounder]. Under the law, protesters are not allowed to gather in the plaza in front of the courthouse but are allowed to gather on the sidewalk.

The case was brought by Harold Hodge and the Rutherford Institute [advocacy website] after Hodge was arrested in January 2011 for wearing a sign protesting the treatment of minorities by law enforcement. The court previously ruled [opinion] on the constitutionality of the law governing protests or demonstrations at or near its building in a 1983 case, United States v. Grace [opinion, PDF]. The justices then nullified only the law’s ban on displays on the public sidewalks around the court building, refusing to strike down the entire law as written. The former law allowed the court’s police force discretion to allow only two kinds of activity on its plaza: television crew interviews on days the court had held hearings, and taking photographs for commercial or professional purposes with the court’s permission.