--- title: Jeff Sessions: Judge Tosses Conviction of Laughing Protester description: A D.C. judge has thrown out the jury conviction of a protester who laughed during Attorney General Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearing. canonical: https://time.com/4859331/jeff-sessions-laugh-desiree-fairooz/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-14T19:46:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:34:16.768Z article:section: Politics og:title: Judge Tosses Conviction of Protester Who Laughed During Sessions Confirmation og:description: She'll return to court in September og:url: https://time.com/4859331/jeff-sessions-laugh-desiree-fairooz/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38fda25e7be54334/6988cbd98fd2ee18d0356e32/gettyimages-631448708.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: jeff-sessions-protestor-convicted og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Judge Tosses Conviction of Protester Who Laughed During Sessions Confirmation twitter:description: She'll return to court in September twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38fda25e7be54334/6988cbd98fd2ee18d0356e32/gettyimages-631448708.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Judge Throws Out Conviction of Protester Who Laughed During Jeff Sessions Confirmation Hearing  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 14, 2017 7:46 PM UTC  Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is seen before his Attorney General confirmation hearing as Code Pink demonstrators dressed as KKK members stand up and call to the Senator at the Russell Senate Office Building on Tuesday January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is seen before his Attorney General confirmation hearing as Code Pink demonstrators dressed as KKK members stand up and call to the Senator at the Russell Senate Office Building on Tuesday January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC.Photograph by Matt McClain—Getty/The Washington Post  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 14, 2017 7:46 PM UTC A D.C. judge has thrown out the [jury conviction](http://time.com/4765667/jeff-sessions-laugh-desiree-fairooz-conviction/?iid=sr-link1) of a protester who laughed during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing. Chief Judge Robert E. Morin of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia said Friday that he was ordering a new trial because he found it “disconcerting” that the government would argue that the laughter of the protester, Desiree Fairooz, was enough to convict her, [according to the Huffington Post.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/protester-laughed-jeff-sessions-sentenced%5Fus%5F5967de92e4b0d6341fe7a9e2?4r) He said the laughter “would not be sufficient” to submit the case to the jury, and has set a new court date for September 1. Fairooz, protesting with the group Code Pink, was removed from Sessions’ Senate confirmation hearing on January 10 after laughing when Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Sessions had a record of “treating all Americans equally under the law.” She was convicted by a jury in May of disorderly, disruptive conduct and obstructing passage on U.S. Capitol grounds, [NPR reports](http://www.npr.org/2017/07/14/537232376/judge-throws-out-conviction-of-woman-who-laughed-at-jeff-sessions), punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4859331/jeff-sessions-laugh-desiree-fairooz/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4859331/jeff-sessions-laugh-desiree-fairooz/"},"headline":"Judge Throws Out Conviction of Protester Who Laughed During Jeff Sessions Confirmation Hearing","datePublished":"2017-07-14T19:46:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:34:16.768Z","description":"She'll return to court in September","url":"https://time.com/4859331/jeff-sessions-laugh-desiree-fairooz/","keywords":["Courts","Jeff Sessions","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38fda25e7be54334/6988cbd98fd2ee18d0356e32/gettyimages-631448708.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38fda25e7be54334/6988cbd98fd2ee18d0356e32/gettyimages-631448708.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"jeff-sessions-protestor-convicted","caption":"Senator Jeff Sessions confirmation hearing - Washington, DC","creditText":"Photograph by Matt McClain—Getty/The Washington Post","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/courts/","name":"Courts"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4859331/jeff-sessions-laugh-desiree-fairooz/","name":"Judge Throws Out Conviction of Protester Who Laughed During Jeff Sessions Confirmation Hearing"}}]}] ```