Two climate activists were arrested Wednesday after dumping red powder on the display encasing the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives in Washington.
The building was evacuated and closed to the public several hours early. Officials said the Constitution was not damaged, and the National Archives will reopen Thursday.
The incident marked the latest demonstration in the nation’s capital featuring civil disobedience from environmentalists who want President Biden to declare a national climate emergency.
Video of the event captured by the D.C.-based group News2Share and uploaded to social media showed Donald Sepeda and Jackson Green of Declare Emergency pouring the red powder on themselves and on the display before calling on Mr. Biden to take more drastic climate change action. The two men were taken into custody by Capitol Police minutes later.
“The National Archives Rotunda is the sanctuary for our nation’s founding documents. They are here for all Americans to view and understand the principles of our nation,” said Dr. Colleen Shogan, Archivist of the United States. “We take such vandalism very seriously and we will insist that the perpetrators be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Declare Emergency said in a statement that its members’ actions were “taken on Valentine’s Day out of love and respect for our fellow citizens whose constitutional rights to fresh air, clean water and healthy food are currently being stolen by our government’s great failure to tell the truth about the pending Earth’s climate system collapse.”
The demonstration was at least the second this week from Declare Emergency.
Mr. Sepeda was arrested on Tuesday for blocking traffic on the George Washington Memorial Parkway with two other climate protesters, according to footage posted by News2Share.
Video by News2Share showed Mr. Green was also arrested in November for painting on the wall next to the sculpture of The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial, which commemorates one of the first Black regiments of the Civil War, at the National Gallery of Art.
Declare Emergency is holding what it calls three “Love in Action” days this week featuring civil disobedience protests. Another is planned for Thursday, the details of which have not been publicly revealed.