These past two weeks we’ve read two plays with similar backbones: a group of people finding something wrong with society, showing their displeasure about it, and being brought to court as a result. However, the two plays read extremely differently, which I believe is a result of one thing in particular: the judges of the trials. Judge Hoffman in the Chicago Eight trial is blatantly dismissive of the defense. He attacks their attire and mannerisms, rejects their attempts to voice their opinions, physically silences one of the defendants by utilizing an out-dated law, and restricts the defendants’ free speech. Judge Hoffman’s actions are so flagrant and biased that every single conviction he hands down is eventually overturned on appeal. In contrast, in the trail of the Catonsville Nine, Judge Thomsen gives the defendants a fair trial. Although setting the nine men and women free was unlikely to ever be an option, Judge Thomsen did everything Judge Hoffman refused to do, including allowing the defendants to speak about the social injustices they had been protesting. The men and women on trial in Catonsville were ultimately sentenced to prison, however their goal of spreading awareness about the atrocities, and inhumanness of the Vietnam War succeeded. After reading the Trial of the Catonsville Nine, I couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if the judges in the respective trials were switched. There was nothing essential to either Chicago or Catonsville, Maryland in either event, as the protests were about American society as a whole. Therefore, it is reasonable to wonder if the results of the trials could’ve been different under different judges. Personally, I believe both trials would’ve ended much differently. Judge Hoffman’s outrageous biases against the Chicago Eight clouded the fact that there was really no sufficient evidence to charge the defendants (hence, why the US government declined to re-try them after the successful appeal). The Catonsville Nine incident led to an increase in anti-draft and anti-military protest – movements that eventually morphed into anti-nuclear weapons protests. Had the trial of the Catonsville Nine been made under a judge who did not allow the defendants their right to air their grievances against the nation, perhaps these corollary movements never take off. While the answer to this thought experiment will obviously never be known, I think it’s worth thinking about how often random chance can influence how we remember history.