Objection

You cannot plead not guilty to charges which stem from your civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is not simply protest; it is the public disobedience of a law which the protester feels in unjust, for the purposes of bringing the law to light and showing that the protester does not agree.

You cannot civilly disobey a military order. If you joined the military, you gave up many of your rights. Sorry, but if you disobey an order, you violate your contract.

You cannot civilly disobey by secretly breaking the law. It must be public, and the intent (this is the important part) must be to be caught. The biggest part of the protest in civil disobedience is the part after you are arrested from breaking the law. You cannot then go to court and plead not guilty. Just because you disagree with a law doesn't make it any less of a law. Until the law is changed as a result of your protest (perhaps I should say, "Unless the law is changed..." but you get the point) you must suffer the consequences. That's part of the protest.

You cannot civilly disobey wars. They aren't laws. If you are arrested from protesting a war, you are not committing an act of civil disobedience. The law you broke had to do with protesting (if in fact you broke a law at all), and you were not attempting to protest an unjust law against protesting (how meta can you get).

So for those of you who regularly use civil disobedience as an excuse to do things you shouldn't, prepare for a wake-up call, probably in the form of some sort of punishment, if you in fact wish to participate in civil disobedience. If you don't wish to participate, then shut up.