Aaron Fairbanks at The Aggregate: "Reflecting on the Heyburn Nine Trial."

I'm delighted to see Aaron Fairbanks contributing to The Aggregate News.

Check out The Aggregate News! It's a well put together site that brings all of your local, state and national news to one place, and it's put together by some incredible young people in Southern Indiana. I'm excited to be taking part in this project, and I look forward to seeing where this thing goes. In an age where obtaining reliable information is difficult, this is a welcome addition to our local media options.

What better place for Aaron to begin than a primer on civil disobedience?

Reflecting on the Heyburn Nine Trial, by Aaron Fairbanks (The Aggregate News)

... Three of the nine protesters—Courtney Kearney, Sonja DeVries and Bob Eiden—proceeded to a public two-day trial beginning on May 16, 2019 to shine a light on the atrocities that they were fighting against that day, and they were found guilty of trespassing but were lucky enough to have a sympathetic jury exercise leniency with their sentence. Each of them left the trial on the second day with a $150 fine satisfied by previous fines paid in their Federal case. But civil disobedience isn’t always given the benefit of the doubt before the law by any means with the absence of statutory protections for those who act in civil disobedience.

The many cases of civil disobedience are cemented in our history. Susan B. Anthony was arrested in Rochester, New York in 1872 and later convicted for voting preceding the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Rosa Parks was arrested and convicted for violating a city ordinance segregating public buses as well as disorderly conduct. Then perhaps most applicable to the Heyburn Nine case was the conviction of the Friendship 9, a group of student protesters who were convicted for trespassing and disturbing the peace when they staged a sit in at a private whites-only establishment at a time when there were no statutory protections prohibiting discrimination by private entities on the basis of race ...

Gahan bans ‘Heyburn Nine’ from entering Nawbany city limits, then slaps down some Hammer vinyl.

That's okay, mister mayor. An ICE-cold Bud Light should take care of the activism-induced headache, but at least it's your pal Greggie having to cope with it and not Shane.

Boy, wouldn't THAT be entertaining.

Heyburn Nine’ plead not guilty over disrupting immigration court, federal charges loom, by Jonathan Meador (Insider Louisville)

Carla Wallace seemed relaxed as she stood on the damp concrete steps of the Hall of Justice Tuesday morning as efforts by a committed group of local activists to change U.S. immigration policy moved from the streets to the courtroom.

The calm remained even as Wallace, a member of a group dubbed the “Heyburn Nine,” began to shout.

“Abolish ICE!” Wallace said, leading about two dozen supporters and eight fellow co-defendants in a now-familiar chant, a battle cry of the protest movement against the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy and Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s policy of separating families at the border.

“Abolish ICE!” the crowd behind her responded.

It's good to see Dan Canon back from his holiday and once again tending to the legal needs of activists.

Dan Canon, a civil rights attorney and former Democratic candidate for Indiana’s 9th Congressional seat, is representing two of the nine arrested protesters. He told Insider that “anybody who can be saved from removal (by ICE) is a victory,” adding that he was inspired by his clients’ actions.

“(My clients) were there to not only exercise a fundamental American right of protest but a fundamental human right to stand against injustices perpetrated by your own government no matter who they’re against,” Canon said.

The charges brought by the city stem from direct action taken by the activists last week, in which nine members of Occupy ICE Louisville blocked access to the Heyburn building, home of the city’s immigration court. According to members of the group, the action was intended to disrupt that court’s proceedings and prevent deportation actions.