DC court rejects Jan. 6 rioter’s appeal: US Capitol 'is not, by law, a public forum'

On Tuesday morning, April 9, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. rejected an appeal by one of the January 6 rioters and upheld his conviction on four misdemeanor charges.

After being found guilty, John Maron Nassif was sentenced to seven months in federal prison.

In his appeal, Nassif argued that when he entered the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, it was a constitutionally protected form of protest. But the D.C. appeals court rejected that argument.

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On X, formerly Twitter, Politico's Kyle Cheney responded to the decision and explained, "The defendant, John Nassif, argued that the statute in question punishes protected First Amendment activity in a public forum. But the court found that Congress has always had the right to restrict activities inside the building itself because of the need to actually do work."

Cheney notes that the appeals court ruled that the U.S. Capitol Building "is not, by law, a public forum."

Nassif, in his appeal, argued that it was. But the court disagreed, ruling that he had no right to enter the U.S. Capitol Building without permission.

In its ruling — which Cheney posted on X — the court writes, "The district court found Nassif guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to a total of seven months' imprisonment followed by 12 months of supervised release. That sentence was below the guidelines range of 10 to 16 months, which the court calculated based on Nassif's total offense level of 12 and his Category I criminal history."

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