THE stone-faced marshals call for quiet at the beginning of every Supreme Court hearing, and the audience complies. Same as usual today, until a woman near the back of the courtroom rose to her feet and shouted, “I rise on behalf of democracy; overturn Citizens United!” Two officers immediately pounced on the woman, grabbing her and, apparently (I heard later), throwing her to the ground just outside the courtroom where her head hit the floor with a thud. Then a man arose, holding up a finger and yelling, “One person, one vote!” He too was grabbed. A third declared, “We are the 99%!” This repeated itself four more times, until seven audience members had had their brief say (including one in Spanish) and were roughed up—a little more savagely than you’re imagining—and tossed out of the room. After the shouting and banging and such, order returned to the court.

It was a stunning moment of human whack-a-mole, and an awkward one for the chief justice, John Roberts. “Our second order of business this morning,” he sing-songed when he thought the disruption had ended, though most of the protestors had yet to rise from their seats. When the clamour really did end—everyone paused lest someone else might pop up—the chief had one more message for the audience before moving on to the decisions and oral arguments of the day. “We will now continue with our tradition of having open court in the Supreme Court,” he said.