A woman will not go to prison for laughing at Jeff Sessions. Not this time: the Department of Justice has just announced that it will drop all charges against Desiree Fairooz, the 61-year old Code Pink protester who was forcibly removed and arrested for laughing out loud during Jeff Sessions’ Attorney General confirmation hearings on January 10th 2017.
Her amusement had been provoked by a laughable punchline. Republican Senator Richard Shelby had praised Sessions for his “extensive record of treating all Americans fairly under the law,” adding that this record “is clear and well-documented.” As a description of a man who was once denied a federal judgeship because of his racism, who actively supports anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ policies, and who casually jokes about the Ku Klux Klan, Shelby’s utterance was patently absurd and deserving of the audible derision it received.
For her protest, Fairooz then faced up to a year in jail and $2,000 in fines. Her conviction in early May elicited a viral storm of outraged responses, including headlines such as: “A Woman Is on Trial for Laughing During a Congressional Hearing,” “Activist’s Giggle Leads to Conviction,” and a piece authored by the Medusan disruptor herself, “I’m Facing Jail Time After Laughing at Jeff Sessions. I Regret Nothing.”
