17 August 2004

Was my book seditious or a deadly weapon?

I arrive a hour early to federal court. It's a show cause so it's not like I can spend the entire time reviewing the file (again). I happen to have a book in the car which I am reading so I grab it; my plan is to sit across from the courtroom in one of the waiting rooms and read for a while. When I get to the front door the marshals confiscate the book but don't give an explanation. After court, on my way out they give me the book back so it must not have been a deadly weapon. All I can figure is that the book must be seditious and the marshals were doing their level best to keep writings about a man who spent so much time in France from corrupting the purity of our judicial system.

Next time I'll just leave the book in my car.

1 comment:

JD Byrne said...

Once when I had an argument in front of the Fourth Circuit I took a copy of the local paper from the hotel with me to read while I waited for court to start (had to show up an hour before the first argument, and I was third or fourth in line). The marshals confiscated it when I came in with no explaination. Maybe they figured I would use it to hide from the judges when they took the bench?