Norton to Testify at Trial of Eight of the "DC 41" Arrested for Protesting Anti-Home-Rule Congressional Action

Norton to Testify at Trial of Eight of the "DC 41" Arrested for Protesting Anti-Home-Rule Congressional Action

November 15, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) on Tuesday will testify at the trial of eight D.C. protesters who were among the "DC 41," the first of 72 District residents arrested in response to the fiscal year 2011 spending bill, at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, 500 Indiana Ave., NW, in room 101. The eight protestors on trial are charged with "unlawful assembly-blocking passage" while peacefully protesting the near-shutdown of the D.C. government in April and the final fiscal year 2011 continuing resolution (CR), which contained two anti-home-rule riders – a prohibition on the District spending the taxes it collects on abortions for low-income women and a D.C.-only private school voucher program.

Norton was invited to testify at a time when she continues to fight the same issues for fiscal year 2012 that led to the arrests of the DC 41. She was originally scheduled to testify in September, but the trial was continued until tomorrow at noon.

Norton celebrated the arrests on the House floor, alerting the House and Senate that her protests in Congress about unique treatment of D.C. reflect the outrage of D.C. residents. In her floor speech, she said that the civil disobedience showed "that D.C. elected officials and residents will not walk away from the infringement of their rights to govern themselves and to spend their taxpayer-raised local funds as they choose."

The vigilance of D.C. residents continues. Local ministers and DC Vote will hold a candlelight vigil at 5:30 p.m. on November 17, 2011, on Pennsylvania Avenue outside of the White House to urge President Obama to stand up for D.C. home rule.

Norton said that the willingness of the D.C. officials and residents to risk arrest helped her to get a rider-free FY 2012 D.C. appropriations bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee in September, and to limit the House Appropriations Committee-passed D.C. Appropriations bill to one rider of the several that were expected. She is now in the midst of fighting to eliminate the abortion rider in the final fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill.

"The eight defendants on trial tomorrow, along with the DC 41 and others who were arrested, DC Vote, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Center for Reproductive Rights and others from a coalition of 100 organizations, have been essential in spotlighting House Republican anti-home-rule actions and helping us get a better bill this year," Norton said.