Why is nobody willing to deploy such laws against judicial intimidation? Officials have argued that Virginia’s and Maryland’s statutes are unenforceable, since they aren’t content neutral. Both laws have an exception that allows picketing for labor disputes. In a 1980 case (Carey v. Brown), the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that a similar Illinois picketing ban was unconstitutional, since it had a union carve-out that “accords preferential treatment to the expression of views on one particular subject.”

Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said he thinks the Virginia statute quoted by Ms. Curley is unconstitutional. “The law cited in the letter is a likely violation of the First Amendment,” he said. “As long as individuals are assembling on public property and not blocking access to private residences, they are permitted to be there.”

Montgomery County’s local ban on residential picketing features no suspect union privilege. The High Court in Carey v. Brown said it did not intend to imply “that residential picketing is beyond the reach of uniform and nondiscriminatory regulation.” It added that a state’s interest in protecting the tranquility of private houses “is certainly of the highest order in a free and civilized society.”