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The Climate Litigation Database

United States v. Martin

Geography
🇺🇸 United States / District of Columbia
Year
2023
Document Type
Litigation
Part of
United States v. Martin

About this case

Filing year
2023
Status
Indictment issued.
Geography
🇺🇸 United States → District of Columbia
Docket number
1:23-cr-00182
Court/admin entity
United States → United States Federal Courts → United States District Court for the District of Columbia (D.D.C.)
Case category
Climate Change Protesters and Scientists (US) → Protesters (US)
Principal law
United States → 40 U.S.C. Chapter 63 (Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)United States → Conspiracy
At issue
Prosecution of climate activists who spread paint on and around a sculpture case at the National Gallery of Art.

Documents

Filing Date
Document
Type
05/25/2023
Indictment issued.
On May 25, 2023, two climate activists were indicted in federal court in the District of Columbia on counts of injury to National Gallery of Art property and conspiracy to injury property after they allegedly entered the museum and spread paint on the case, base, and floor surrounding Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer Aged 14.” In a <a href="https://www.declareemergency.org/press/paint-tossed-onto-degass-little-dancer-statue">news release</a>, the group Declare Emergency indicated that the defendants’ actions were part of a “week of action with the goal of getting President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and halt all fossil fuel extraction/infrastructure on Federal and Indigenous lands.”
Other

Summary

Prosecution of climate activists who spread paint on and around a sculpture case at the National Gallery of Art.