Hacker Cinema
The Trial of the Chicago 7
2020 · Film · 130 min
Directed by Aaron Sorkin
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
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Yes, but that was originally written to punish evidence tampering. The Jan 6th trials were the first time it was applied to protests, and that use is so novel that the Supreme Court has agreed to review it.[1]
And the "corruptly" term was effectively eliminated by UNITED STATES v. ROBERTSON (2023)[2], when the appeals court ruled that it means simply “acting ‘with consciousness of wrongdoing.’” (mens rea) and with “independently unlawful means or purpose”.
Almost all disruptive protests involve some minor "independently unlawful means" (such as jaywalking, trespassing, disorderly conduct, or failure to comply with a police officer), so they fit that definition.
The court's example to illustrate the meaning of the term was: "a witness in a court proceeding may refuse to testify by invoking his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination, thereby obstructing or impeding the proceeding, but he does not act corruptly".
The court actually said that taking the fifth is obstructing an official proceeding (but not corruptly).
Imagine how little it takes to commit a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison now. Have you seen the movie "The Trial of the Chicago 7"? If that happened today, not only could they be convicted of "corruptly" disrupting an official proceeding for the protests, they could be convicted for their behavior during the trial. (In the latter case, the independently unlawful means would be behavior that was in contempt of court)
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_v._United_States
2: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-dc-circuit/115332314.html
PS: I should add that the 20 years comes from a different law with the same phrasing, 18 U.S. Code § 1512 - Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant, section (c)(2). The existence of two laws with the same phrasing, both for specific crimes (evidence tampering and witness tampering), makes it clear that the legislature didn't intend for these laws to apply broadly.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1512#c_2
"Judas and the Black Messiah" was a wonderful, uncompromising view into the radical black politics of the 1960s. As I was watching it I couldn't help but compare it to the weak-sauce Sorkin film "The Trial of the Chicago 7" which Sorkin ends by having the government prosecution stand up and clap for the defendants (lol); compare this to the brutal assassination of Fred Hampton by the FBI and CPD. Also compelling was Martin Sheen's heel-turn as a particularly slimy J. Edgar Hoover, given how America knows him as Sorkin's inspirational speech-giving president from the West Wing.