As demonstrators shouted at the U.S. Supreme Court during a public session in April, Justice Antonin Scalia said on an open microphone, “Give them stiff, stiff sentences,” according to a tape and transcript of the incident that has surfaced in the prosecution of the protesters.
Justice Clarence Thomas also chimed in. Referring to one of the demonstrators, he said, “That’s the same guy from last time.” As other protesters rose to shout at the court and were taken out of the courtroom by police, Thomas added, “Pretty soon we might have an empty room.”
Washington lawyer Jeffrey Light, representing the five demonstrators who were arrested on April 1, filed a memorandum with U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper on Wednesday that quoted Scalia’s comments, which were previously unreported, and asked that they be kept from the jury.