Cornel West Arrested at Supreme Court Protest

Left-wing activist and Princeton University professor Cornel West was arrested Sunday while protesting on the steps of the Supreme Court about corporate influence in politics.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman told AP that 19 people were arrested Sunday afternoon after they refused to leave the grounds of the court. Photos received by Gothamist confirm that West was cuffed at the event, on the front steps of the court. Ann Wilcox, an attorney and legal adviser to the protesters, also told AP that West was among those arrested.

West attended the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall before joining the October 2011 Stop the Machine protest in Washington's Freedom Plaza.The anti-war protest is marking 10 years since the start of the war in Afghanistan.

West, an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been in the news of late in regards to controversial comments made during television interviews. On CNN last week, West said that Herman Cain should “get off the symbolic crack pipe," and participated in a tense back and forth with Bill O'Reilly and Tavis Smiley on the O'Reilly Factor the next day.