WASHINGTON, April 28 -- It is 59 degrees but bright on the steps of the Supreme Court at 10:30 a.m. on this late April morning. To the right side of the small complex, on the lower plaza, a middle-aged man in colonial 'founding fathers' dress and ghost-like makeup reclines in a cardboard casket, amidst a small gathering of demonstrators. On the center plaza at the top of the steps, just outside the doors, hundreds wait quietly in line for a chance to witness the court hear arguments in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld v. Padilla on whether the federal government can lawfully hold an American citizen without access to lawyer or trial. On the left, 100 feet across the lower plaza from the demonstrators, a handful of local telecommunications lawyers and community activists announce the launch of a program that will bring free wireless Internet access to the National Mall.
10:55 PM
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