MARYLAND POLITICS

An ex-priest, a flier and the arrest that legalized protests at Md. homes

Phillip Schuller’s short-lived 1976 demonstration at Donald Rumsfeld’s house is protecting some abortion rights protests today

By Erin Cox
May 24, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT



Phillip Schuller, 68, protested briefly during college in 1976. His case ultimately overturned a Maryland anti-picketing law. (Jeff Swensen for The Washington Post)

Four decades ago, Phillip Schuller stumbled into history, joining a demonstration that involved an ex-priest, 10 pints of blood and Donald H. Rumsfeld’s front lawn. ... Schuller’s 1976 arrest ultimately upended Maryland’s law banning protests outside private residences. And it’s a key reason why, today, abortion rights activists can picket in front of the suburban Maryland homes of conservative Supreme Court justices. ... “It’s correct to say that thanks to him, they’re not getting arrested,” said David Rocah, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. ... “I was young and crazy then,” Schuller, now 68, reflected last week from his Pittsburgh home.

[Youngkin, Hogan ask Justice Dept. to halt protests at justices’ homes]

In the spring of 1976, Schuller was an impetuous sociology major at Slippery Rock University in western Pennsylvania. He saw a bulletin-board flier about a nuclear proliferation protest near D.C., he recalled, “and I said that I’m going to that.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=767

Activists march in Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s neighborhood in Chevy Chase, Md., in January. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)

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Schuller arrived midway through the last day of protests, he said, and wasn’t there long before the police showed up and said the activists had to leave. Most in the core group complied. Schuller did not. ... “I just felt it was a public street,” he said. “It was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. I didn’t really think it through.” Arrested and charged with illegally picketing a protest, he went to jail with a few others for the afternoon. The man who would change Maryland law was absent for the main protest.

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In May 1977, deciding the appeal known as State v. Schuller, Maryland’s second-highest court declared state law violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments in barring picketing in front of residences. Judges unanimously agreed the law was “unconstitutional on its face because it unreasonably and improperly impinges upon the defendants’ rights of Freedom of Speech and Assembly.” .... Rocah, the Maryland ACLU attorney, said State v. Schuller blocked Maryland authorities from arresting people simply for picketing outside a home. Subsequent federal court rulings, he said, have reinforced and strengthened protesters’ right to be in a public arena, so long as they don’t stay still targeting a single home. ... In justices’ neighborhoods, abortion rights demonstrators are marching.

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By Erin Cox
Erin Cox is a politics reporter covering Maryland. She joined The Washington Post in 2018 and has written about Maryland since 2007. Twitter https://twitter.com/ErinatThePost