On February 22nd, Indybay reporter Mark Burdett filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in a federal civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2004 arrest for "jaywalking" while covering an antiwar protest in San Francisco. The story was featured on the February 23rd episode of The Colbert Report.

In a series of recent civil rights cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has permitted the "custodial arrest" of people for petty offenses. In an October 2010 ruling on Burdett's appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals carried this precedent to the extreme, finding that police have absolute probable cause to arrest a credentialed reporter for "jaywalking," while standing in a parking turnout, on a street blocked to traffic, during an antiwar march, filming the violent arrest of a protester.

Read More | The Colbert Report Video

Previous Related Indybay Feature: Ninth Circuit Decision Limits Freedom of the Press