Robert Lederman, a New York artist arrested in 1997 while distributing leaflets outside the Capitol, prevailed in two court fights over the issue. First, a judge in D.C. Superior Court dismissed the charge against him. Then U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts struck down the regulation that U.S. Capitol Police had been relying upon to ban leafleting. Now the Capitol Police Board has responded with an amended regulation, effective March 30, that bars leafleting along with picketing and other kinds of demonstrations at the Capitol. The new regulation would redirect leafleters 250 feet away from the steps.
Officials contend that leafleting can attract crowds and disrupt traffic.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Lederman, will challenge the amended regulation, too, said Arthur B. Spitzer, its legal director. His essays and letters have appeared in the NY Times, NY Post, Daily News, Newsday, Brooklyn Bridge, Park Slope Courier, The Daily Challenge, Amsterdam News, Sandbox, Penthouse, Our Town, NY Press and are available on hundreds of websites around the world. Lederman has been falsely arrested 41 times to date for his anti-Giuliani activities and has never been convicted of any of the charges. He is best known for creating hundreds of paintings of Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator. Copyright 2001 Greenwich Village Gazette.