Golden Gate 26 defendants and their supporters hold a press conference at San Francisco City Hall after their verdicts were announced on July 2. There are many legal questions surrounding the prosecution of the protesters who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge.

On April 15, 2024, 26 people protesting America’s support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza shut down three southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge for four hours before being taken into custody by police.

Four months later, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged all the protesters, saying that there were “extreme threats to the health and welfare of those trapped” on the bridge, while her team referenced a person with a brain tumor who missed a medical appointment.

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Jenkins charged 19 of the protesters with 34 misdemeanor counts, but after they agreed to pay financial damages and do five hours of community service, their charges were dismissed. 

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The remaining seven — who had linked themselves together in what’s known as a “sleeping dragon” formation, locked to metal bars — were charged with 38 misdemeanors and a single felony count of conspiracy. Last week, after six days of deliberation, a jury in the criminal trial of those seven rendered verdicts: each was convicted of four false imprisonment misdemeanors, one count of obstruction of a thoroughfare and one of unlawful assembly. The felony conspiracy charge resulted in a hung jury. These seven, who also paid restitution, remain released pending sentencing on the misdemeanors, and Jenkins could seek a retrial on the felony.

The protest and subsequent trial come at a delicate moment in San Francisco, where some........

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