FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s Republican- supermajority legislature is taking steps to criminalize disruptive protests inside the Capitol, raising concerns among advocates that their right to challenge authority will be chilled.
Before major votes on divisive issues, hordes of protesters have gathered at the foot of the actions that lawmakers walk to achieve the House or Senate chambers, creating a snare that echoes throughout the legislature. Often activists crowd the Capitol Annex’s commission rooms or watch floor debates in the galleries.
Educators, union members, and pro-choice advocates have staged numerous demonstrations, but it was a protest against anti-transgender legislation that led the Kentucky House to review new criminal offenses for interfering with parliamentary proceedings, which led to the arrest of some demonstrators on legal intruding charges last month. The Senate is currently hearing the act.
Democratic position representative John Blanton says protesting is “as American as apple pie” and “part of the basis of who we are, and I thoroughly support that.” However, he claimed that when demonstrators “cross the line” and start a destructive behavior, there should be effects.
“House Bill 626’s goal is to give the General Assembly the opportunity to pass laws without getting in the way of those who want to stop us from carrying out our work on behalf of our components,” said Blanton.
FILE- Activists of Kentucky Senate act SB150, known as the Transgender Health Bill gather at the actions of the Senate room of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., Wednesday, March 29, 2023. When the Republican-led government is considering bills that stir the emotions of activists opposing them, protests at Kentucky’s Capitol may appear as widespread and loud as sports cheer rallies. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Timothy D. Easley
Another state legislature even have criminalized problems. Georgia has a laws, challenged in court, making a second such offense a criminal. Until 2020 in Kansas, people who wanted to step an event at the legislature, including a opposition, had to have a parliamentary partner and force, and portable indications were banned. After a petition, the laws were changed to allow tablet signs as long as no one attaches them to a wall or fence. A permit or partner are not required unless someone wants to supply a particular space, such as a committee room.
According to the Kentucky costs, “disorderly or damaging conduct” intended to obstruct or deter lawmakers from conducting business would be a first-degree misdemeanor and a felony for subsequent offenses. Additionally, the offenses include preventing a senator or aide from entering or leaving a parliamentary building in an effort to obstruct lawmakers from conducting business.
They worry that it might impair their ability to challenge authority figures.
What other options do Kentuckians have besides to rally their behavior when politicians are deliberately stripping aside civil privileges? said Chris Hartman, senior director of the Fairness Campaign, a Kentucky- based LGBTQ+ lobbying group that led antagonism to the pro-trans costs.
Corey Shapiro, the legal director of the ACLU of Kentucky, said he is concerned that “people could be arrested for simply expressing their opinions to legislators.”
According to University of Kentucky constitutional law professor Joshua Douglas, lawmakers can generally criminalize actions that interfere with their orderly business if they have “reasonable alternative avenues of speech” available.
According to Douglas, “my concern with the bill is that it does not define disorderly or disruptive conduct, which would cause it to be seen as too vague under the First Amendment.” For a good-faith governmental purpose, “laws that limit speech must be written very precisely to make it clear what speech conduct is prohibited.”
Twenty years ago, when Democrats still held control of the House, hundreds of hymn-singing protesters urged lawmakers to support a constitutional amendment that barred same-sex unions, which the electorate overwhelmingly supported.
The current backlash is directed at Republican legislation. Teachers gathered at the Capitol a few years ago to protest pension laws and other measures they thought were anti-public education. Abortion- rights supporters spoke out, to no avail, as GOP lawmakers passed anti- abortion laws, culminating in the state’s near- total ban.
When the House overrode the Democratic Governor last year, a raging rift created. The bill that restricts access to gender-affirming medical care for young transgender people is vetoed by Andy Beshear. Nearly 20 protesters were removed and charged with third-degree criminal trespassing as a result of protracted chants coming out of the gallery.
Blanton told his House colleagues on Monday, There were many of you that had their buttons to push last year that wanted to speak, that had your voices silenced. “It became so out of control because we simply had to move on and take the vote. So they were trying to impede our process”.
Since the Capitol is a public space, Blanton, a retired state police officer, said the proposed new criminal offenses would be more appropriate than trespassing statutes. Of the 19 people arrested last year, only one has gone to trial, and was ordered to pay a $1 fine along with court costs. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, four others entered pleas of guilty, and the remainder of the cases are pending.
As for how law enforcement officers would interpret a demonstrator’s intent when enforcing the measure, their first response would be to observe and, if they can identify people being disruptive, ask them to leave, Blanton said.
“They’re not just going to go up there and randomly start arresting people”, Blanton said. “We’ve never seen that happen here”.
Such reassurances haven’t’ concerns. “From my personal experience, state troopers are nothing but antsy when it comes to protesters”, Hartman said.
Associated Press Writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
