New federal felony for road-blocking protest: 5 years in prison
S. 2115 — Safe and Open Streets Act · Filed by Thom Tillis (R-NC) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal law to create a new federal crime: blocking public roads or highways in a way that interferes with commerce. The offense carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and/or fines. The bill broadens the existing federal extortion statute (18 U.S.C. § 1951) to include road-blocking as a standalone crime, separate from the current requirement that interference involve threats or violence.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to expand federal criminal law to reach road-blocking conduct, creating a new felony with a 5-year prison sentence. While framed as protecting commerce, the functional effect is to federalize and criminalize protest tactics, shifting enforcement authority and raising penalties.
What the text implies
- The bill does not define 'affect commerce' or 'blocking' with precision, creating prosecutorial discretion to charge protest activity broadly — a sit-in, march, or permitted demonstration that slows traffic could trigger federal charges.
- Conforming amendments strike 'by threats or violence' from the section heading and related cross-references, signaling that road-blocking alone (without threats/violence) now constitutes the federal crime — a significant expansion of federal criminal reach.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who it affects
The bill creates a new federal felony for road-blocking protest, lowering the threshold for federal prosecution and imposing a 5-year prison penalty for conduct that may constitute protected political speech or civil disobedience. Citizens exercising First Amendment rights through protest tactics face federal criminal liability and incarceration, chilling protest activity and shifting enforcement from state/local to federal level without clear public-safety justification.