John Dennis Apel holds the rare distinction of taking his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, twice.
But on April 27, the justices refused to hear arguments in the United States v. Apel case the second time around and instead upheld a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The persistent Vandenberg Air Force Base protestor was once again hoping the justices would consider his case based on First Amendment arguments.
“We asked them to rule on the First Amendment, and they just wouldn’t do it,” Apel said. “They only wanted to talk about the statute.”
This battle started in 2010 when Apel was arrested and cited several times for standing on a small patch of grass in front of Vandenberg’s main gate on Highway 1, which sits close to the side of the road.
He was arrested based on a federal law that imposes fines or imprisonment for people found within any military, naval, or Coast Guard “reservation, post, fort, arsenal, yard, station, or installation.”
At the time, Apel was well known among base officials for his protest activities. He’s received several “ban and bar” notices in the 18 years he’s been protesting. Apel once splattered a vial of his own blood on a sign, was arrested, briefly jailed, and ordered to stay away from the base for several years.
Originally, his case reached the Supreme Court in 2013 after the 9th Court Circuit reversed his conviction.
Erwin Chemerinksy, Apel’s lawyer, tried to argue that the military didn’t have the authority to prohibit Apel from protesting on the side of the road.
The justices didn’t buy the First Amendment arguments. “You raise it, but we don’t have to listen to it,” Justice Antonin Scalia said to Chemerinsky, according to court transcripts.
Apel’s case was sent back down to the 9th Circuit, where it was reheard in October 2014. That time, the court reversed its previous ruling and upheld Apel’s conviction.
“Mr. Apel was protesting on the public area of a military base in a public protest area,” Chemerinsky told the Sun in an email. “This is speech that should be deemed protected by the First Amendment.”
Apel is waiting to see if he has to pay his citations, which he said totals around $300. He said he wasn’t sure if he would pay them.
“I don’t pay fines for citations, especially citations where I feel like I’ve been treated unjustly,” Apel told the Sun.
This article appears in May 7-14, 2015.