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After 19 protesters were arrested when the legislature passed a sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ bill, lawmakers are considering new punishments — which civil rights activists say could limit free speech.
Spurred by protests over anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, Kentucky lawmakers are considering a bill that would criminalize “disorderly or disruptive conduct” inside the state capitol.
House Bill 626 would create the crime of “interference with a legislative proceeding” in the first and second degree, defined as “the intent to disrupt, impede, or prevent the General Assembly from conducting business,” the bill’s text reads. Certain violations would be classified as misdemeanors, others as felonies. The Kentucky House passed it last Thursday, and it’s pending in the Senate.
“The purpose of House Bill 626 is to ensure that the General Assembly has an opportunity to legislate without interference from people who wish to prevent us from doing our work on behalf of our constituents,” Republican Rep. John Blanton told the Associated Press.
Protests are “as American as apple pie” and “part of the foundation of who we are, and I’m fully supportive of that,” but sometimes they “cross the line,” he said.
There have been huge demonstrations at the capitol by a variety of groups, but the legislation has been proposed in reaction to protests by LGBTQ+ activists when lawmakers voted last year to override Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a sweeping bill that included a “don’t say gay or trans” provision on public school instruction, a ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors, restroom regulations, and a requirement for school staff to out trans students to their parents. During debate and voting, the House gallery was filled with protesters, 19 of whom were arrested on charges of third-degree criminal trespassing.
HB 626 is likely to pass, as Republicans have veto-proof majorities in both the House and Senate. Some states have passed similar legislation, but civil rights activists are calling the Kentucky measure a threat to free speech.
“When lawmakers are willfully stripping away civil rights, what other avenues do Kentuckians have but to protest their actions?” Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, a Kentucky LGBTQ+ group, told the AP.
“My concern with the bill is that it does not define ‘disorderly or disruptive conduct,’ so it could be seen as too vague under the First Amendment,” added University of Kentucky constitutional law professor Joshua Douglas. “Laws that limit speech must be written very precisely so it is clear what speech conduct is prohibited for a good enough governmental purpose.”
Corey Shapiro, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, expressed worry that “people could be arrested for simply expressing their opinions to legislators.”
The Kentucky capitol has seen many large and passionate protests, including one 20 years ago in which “hundreds of hymn-singing protesters exhorted lawmakers to support a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages, which voters then approved overwhelmingly,” the AP notes.
Just one of the people arrested during last year’s LGBTQ+ protest has gone to trial; this person was sentenced to pay a $1 fine plus court costs. Four others have pleaded guilty, and the others await court action.
