People v. Crayton

We affirm unanimously defendants’ conviction of violating subdivision 2 of section 722 of the Penal Law (disorderly conduct). A majority of the court agrees, too, that they were guilty of violating section 1851, which prohibits resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer in the discharge of his duty. Our view is that the statute should not be contracted *214to absolve the defendants of unlawful conduct merely because they engaged in what they conceived to be a form of protest.

Lawful protest is an aspect of freedom of speech, which Cabdozo called the matrix of nearly every other form of…