Articles

On a warm evening in early April, a rally on Washington, DC’s Capitol Hill took a turn for the dramatic when protestors surged into Constitution Avenue, blocking rush-hour traffic.  U.S. Capitol police arrested 41 of the demonstrators, among them District of Columbia Mayor Vince Gray and six member of the DC Council.

Protests in Washington are a common sight, but one featuring the arrest of much of the city’s elected leadership is not.  Their grievance:  As part of the deal to prevent a shutdown of the federal government, Congress – with the acquiescence of President Obama – had just banned the District from using its own money to pay for abortions for low-income women, and had revived a private-school voucher program that many local officials and residents opposed.