Do legislative gallery rules make sense?
Last Thursday the state Assembly voted, 59-37, with only one Democrat joining the majority Republicans, on new restrictions for gallery visitors.
The rules ban visitors from using audio or video devices to record, photograph, film, videotape the proceedings on the Assembly floor. Visitors also can’t use cellphones or pagers, read newspapers or other printed materials, eat or drink, display signs or placards, carry bags or briefcases or wear hats.
Those violating the rules won’t be allowed back for 24 hours. A second violation during the two-year legislative session would ban the person until the next regularly scheduled floor period. A third slip and you would be banned for the rest of the legislative session.
The Republican-controlled Senate might enact similar rules today.
Champions of First Amendment rights no doubt are crying foul. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, however, said the rules are designed to restore decorum to the galleries.
The changes come after 2011 protests over new limits to collective bargaining for most public employees. Critics of those limits resorted to shouting at lawmakers from the gallery and even using bike locks to chain themselves to the railings. Gov. Scott Walker will deliver his State of the State speech at 7 tonight, and I seem to recall that some spectators were escorted out after shouting from the gallery during his annual address last year.
Before they go bonkers over these new rules, free-speech advocates might want to consider how these limits compare to restrictions at the U.S. Capitol. Before you’re escorted into the gallery of the U.S. Senate or House, you’ll have to give up your battery-operated electronics, any type of recording device, camera, any can or bottle, packages, briefcases, backpacks and suitcases. Leave that cream, lotion and perfume behind, too. While the list doesn’t name watches, expect to remove those, as well.
Heck, when my wife and I visited the House gallery for our allotted minutes (almost 15!) two years ago after a Disney World-like wait, I had along a pocket-sized notebook and started scratching notes with a pen as House members debated funding for the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program. While I wasn’t bothering anyone, I was ordered to put the pen and notepad away. As a citizen and full-time journalist, you can bet that demand made me feel as though my First Amendment rights were being violated.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook
Jan 17, 2013 at 11:29 a.m.
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Wislady thinks she is running
a news outlet.
Bulletin, bulletin, bulletin.
Here is your
bulletin, bulletin, bulletin.
Jan 16, 2013 at 8:38 p.m.
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I’ve participate in many organizations: two Veterans groups; UW-Rock County Foundation board; several church groups; Scout groups; union negotiations committee - - - all of these have expectations of reasonable behavior and decorum. Disruptions sometimes result in a member or visitor from the public being asked to either settle down please exit the meeting area.
. . .
If citizens cannot grasp the solemnity of the site and our legislative body, one might reasonably ask what their true motives are. Of course, if you are a member of the opposite view point, you must cry, “Fowl!” We’ve become a nation of Whiners and finger pointers.
. . .
The last three generations have been suckled and raised with the notion that the collective We should be allowed to do whatever we want. Geeze, is it any wonder that other nations look down on us‽
. . .
Isn’t it time, folks, that we begin to sent the pendulum the other way and return to reason and civility, especially in the very house from which we seek fair laws and just treatment for all our citizens?
Jan 15, 2013 at 4:49 p.m.
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Reading a newspaper? Wearing a hat? rofl.
Jan 15, 2013 at 4:44 p.m.
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As the noose slowly tightens year after year people keep screaming for more.
I'm just sayin'...
Jan 15, 2013 at 4:05 p.m.
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Update,
he made it to the Rotunda.
That is the reason purses and backpacks are not allowed in the gallery.
Jan 15, 2013 at 3:52 p.m.
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The rules make sense.
Today, a person who claimed he had a "Molotov cocktail" in his backpack, was apprehended just as he was entering the Capitol in Madison.
Jan 15, 2013 at 2:35 p.m.
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Anyone watching the Senate in session now? Quite telling, and very obvious, that democrats have NO plans to work in a bi partisan manner.
Jan 15, 2013 at 12:20 p.m.
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I went to DC for the first time last year. I viewed the house gallery. I had to go through a security check and we had to check our cell phones, cameras, purses... We were also admonished that there was no talking. The rules make perfect sense to me.
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