Supreme Court Issues New Rule Barring Protests on Plaza

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a new regulation barring most demonstrations on the plaza in front of the courthouse.

The regulation did not significantly alter the court’s longstanding restrictions on protests on its plaza. It appeared, rather, to be a reaction to a decision issued Tuesday by a federal judge, which narrowed the applicability of a 1949 federal law barring “processions or assemblages” or the display of “a flag, banner or device designed or adapted to bring into public notice a party, organization or movement” in the Supreme Court building or on its grounds.

The law was challenged by Harold Hodge Jr., a student from Maryland who was arrested in 2011 on the Supreme Court plaza for wearing a large sign protesting police mistreatment of blacks and Hispanics.

Lawyers representing the Supreme Court’s marshal told the judge hearing Mr. Hodge’s case that the law was needed to allow “unimpeded ingress and egress of visitors to the court” and to preserve “the appearance of the court as a body not swayed by external influence.”

But Judge Beryl A. Howell of Federal District Court in Washington ruled for Mr. Hodge. “The absolute prohibition on expressive activity in the statute is unreasonable, substantially overbroad and irreconcilable with the First Amendment,” she wrote, adding that the law was “unconstitutional and void as applied to the Supreme Court plaza.”

The Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of the law in 1983, in United States v. Grace, saying it could not be applied to demonstrations on the public sidewalks around the court.

On the grand plaza in front of the courthouse, however, Supreme Court police have been known to order visitors to remove buttons making political statements.

The regulation issued Thursday, which the court said was “approved by the chief justice of the United States,” requires visitors to “maintain suitable order and decorum within the Supreme Court building and grounds.” It bars demonstrations, which it defines as “picketing, speech making, marching, holding vigils or religious services and all other like forms of conduct that involve the communication or expression of views or grievances, engaged in by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to draw a crowd or onlookers.”

It was not clear whether the new regulations would have applied to Mr. Hodge’s protest. The regulations said there was an exception for “casual use by visitors or tourists that is not reasonably likely to attract a crowd or onlookers.”

John W. Whitehead, the president of the Rutherford Institute, which represents Mr. Hodge, said the new regulation was disturbing.

“Facing a fine or imprisonment because one man demonstrates in front of the Supreme Court,” he said, “is repugnant to the First Amendment.”

Q&A: Protecting a PC From Spam and Spoofs

Q.

I keep getting e-mail from someone I know, but the messages do not seem to be from him â€" they are all junk advertisements. Does my friend have a computer virus, and can I catch it on my PC by opening these messages?

A.

Your friend’s computer may be infected with malicious software that is using his address book to spread itself. It is also possible that someone else has gained control of your friend’s account, or that the real sender is forging (spoofing) his address in hopes that the message will get by spam filters.

You can keep your computer safer by not clicking on any included Web links or opening any file attachments that may be included in the messages. An up-to-date security program â€" one that includes antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall protections â€" can catch many forms of malware.

If you do not have a commercial security suite, About.com has a list of free basic antivirus programs. Free versions of anti-spyware programs like Malwarebytes and Spybot Search & Destroy are also available.

You should contact your friend with the suspect e-mail account and let him know about the situation. He should also check his machine with anti-malware software for viruses and things like Trojan horse programs. (Trojan horse malware can do things like record password keystrokes or even turn the computer into a remote-control machine for someone else.) After scanning the computer, he should also change his passwords for e-mail and other services, especially if malware or unfamiliar messages in the e-mail account’s out-box were discovered.

It can be harder to deal with messages that are merely forging your friend’s return address in the sender field. (Looking at the full message header to see the originating e-mail address can reveal a spoof; the steps for displaying headers in several mail programs are here). If spoofing is the cause, there is not much you can do, but the PC World site has an article on minimizing exposure to e-mail spoofing.

The AL13 Is an Aluminum Case With No Screws to Lose

The AL13 aluminum case from Designed by M uses a sliding frame to lock an iPhone into place.

Aluminum cases for the iPhone tend to be light and durable but are assembled with minuscule screws that are easy to lose or snap.

The AL13 aluminum case from Designed by M avoids that problem by using a sliding frame to lock the iPhone into place.

The AL13, which began as a Kickstarter project, is a bumper-style case. That means the hard part wraps around the edge of the phone, and leaves the front and back unobstructed, like the plastic bumper that Apple supplied with the iPhone 4. The front and back are covered in a protective film that comes with the AL13 case comes with a protective film for the front and back of the phone.

The case is very easy to assemble. After you apply the films, you just slide the rear frame off the bumper. It glides along a track like a drawer. Push the phone into the bumper then slide the frame back into place (which can take a little fiddling).

It looks like good protection against scratches and dings, but because there is minimal shock-absorbing material inside the bumper, I wonder how much protection there would be against the concussion of a drop.

The bumper, which is anodized aircraft aluminum, is made in purple, blue, fuchsia, white and gunmetal gray.

The AL13 is available online from Designed by M, at $80 for the iPhone 4 or 5.

The AL13 Is an Aluminum Case With No Screws to Lose

The AL13 aluminum case from Designed by M uses a sliding frame to lock an iPhone into place.

Aluminum cases for the iPhone tend to be light and durable but are assembled with minuscule screws that are easy to lose or snap.

The AL13 aluminum case from Designed by M avoids that problem by using a sliding frame to lock the iPhone into place.

The AL13, which began as a Kickstarter project, is a bumper-style case. That means the hard part wraps around the edge of the phone, and leaves the front and back unobstructed, like the plastic bumper that Apple supplied with the iPhone 4. The front and back are covered in a protective film that comes with the AL13 case comes with a protective film for the front and back of the phone.

The case is very easy to assemble. After you apply the films, you just slide the rear frame off the bumper. It glides along a track like a drawer. Push the phone into the bumper then slide the frame back into place (which can take a little fiddling).

It looks like good protection against scratches and dings, but because there is minimal shock-absorbing material inside the bumper, I wonder how much protection there would be against the concussion of a drop.

The bumper, which is anodized aircraft aluminum, is made in purple, blue, fuchsia, white and gunmetal gray.

The AL13 is available online from Designed by M, at $80 for the iPhone 4 or 5.

The Early Word: Testing

In Today’s Times:

• The director of the National Security Agency says the surveillance programs unveiled in leaked documents over the past two weeks help the agency prevent terrorist attacks just as Congress asked after the Sept. 11 attacks, David E. Sanger, Charlie Savage and Michael S. Schmidt write.

• Keith Bradsher explains the complicated, if not daunting, path ahead for Edward J. Snowden, the federal contractor who claimed to be the source of the leaked documents and who plans to fight his extradition to the United States.

• With abortion opponents having won a series of victories on reproductive rights in the states, Republicans advanced a bill to the House floor on Wednesday that bans abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy. Jeremy W. Peters explains that the move tests a new strategy “that aims to focus public attention on the disputed theory that fetuses can feel pain.”

• Debate over a bill to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws has turned to border security as the bill’s architects look to gain Republican support for the legislation, Julia Preston and Ashley Parker write.

• Jennifer Steinhauer explains how the Obama administration’s is using executive measures to tighten gun control after legislation was defeated in Congress, a move that has been met with reluctant acceptance from gun control advocates and outrage from gun rights groups and their allies in Congress.

• The Obama administration is blocking or delaying several pending antipollution rules, despite the president’s promise in his State of the Union address to act on energy and climate change if Congress did not, John M. Broder writes.

Happening in Washington:

• Economic reports expected Thursday include May retail sales and weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by April business inventories and weekly mortgage rates.

• At 10 a.m., the House Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight hearing focused on the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the agency’s departing director, Robert S. Mueller III.

• A Senate Appropriations subcommittee will examine the state of the nation’s roads and bridges at a hearing on infrastructure set for 10 a.m.

• Representative John Dingell of Michigan will meet with the president at the White House at 11:40 a.m., before a 3:30 p.m. ceremony on Capitol Hill where he will be honored as the longest-serving member of Congress.

• Shortly after 5 p.m., the president will speak at a White House ceremony marking L.G.B.T. Pride Month.