The day I backdoored the SCOTUS

And helped save the Republic.

In mid August of 1980 my wife and I were in Washington and we were planning to see the sights of the city as a part of a 3-week hippie vw-minivan tour of America honeymoon.

The town was mostly empty and we found a parking spot on the street behind the Supreme Court building. As we got out, we noticed someone leave thru a back door.

Being acquainted with how to sneak into Grateful Dead shows, we noticed that the door the fellow had exited was still ajar. We proceeded to the door and lo and behold, we were able to enter the building unannounced.

We entered at the end of a long hallway lined on either side with paintings of grey haired or bald old men looking down upon us in frighteningly intelligent gazes. We spent about 20 minutes reading the names on the paintings as several well dress attorneys looking folks strode past us rubbernecking at the hippies before them. We were of course slightly out of place, with tie dyed tee shirts and cutoffs and flip-flops. However, we smiled upon all we met in a sweet and innocent manner (could have been the joint we had smoked minutes before entering the building, but anyway).

wifey and I walked the halls of the building for another 30 minutes wandering thru offices, climbing back stairs and looking at more wall paintings until we rounded a corner where an armed guard stood, with his back to us. He looked like a serious dude, so we began talking to each other so as not to startle him. Nevertheless he about jumped out of his skin and looked all embarrassed, which for a black man to blush was quite a sight. Initially he was a bit angry with us, asked us what the hell we were doing there, and show him some form of ID, but we just smiled and acted friendly and said we were on our honeymoon and had come through the door that was open in the back. And he just looked stunned.

Luckily, the absurdity of the situation caught the better of him and he shook his head and asked/told us to show him where the door was. So with him in tow, my wife and I retraced our steps (no office wandering or staircase climbing this time) and showed him the door that was still ajar... it was slightly broken and would not close all the way... and no one apparently knew about it either until we informed the guard.

He told us that we had broken security but that since we looked like as we said, hippies seeing the sights on our honeymoon, and had shown them their security breach, he was not going to get us in trouble. Then he gave us a well-guided tour of the public area of the SCOTUS building.
Yes, indeed, that was a day for the ages, when wifey and I helped save the republic, and all because we came in through the back door of the SCOTUS building.

We never got a medal or anything, but we were proud to help.