A judge in Davidson County blocked a rule prohibiting paper signs from the Tennessee House of Representatives gallery or lobby.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Tennessee on behalf of three Tennesseans escorted out of a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday for possessing paper signs advocating a political message.
BREAKING: In a victory for free speech, a chancery court judge just blocked enforcement of the Tennessee House's unreasonable rule prohibiting people from silently holding signs in House galleries while our lawsuit proceeds.
— ACLU of Tennessee (@aclutn) August 23, 2023
Rule 4 of the rules package, passed Monday by a 73-23 vote, reads:
ORDER IN GALLERY OR LOBBY. In case of any disturbance or disorderly conduct in the gallery or lobby, the Speaker or the Chair of the Committee of the Whole shall have power to order the same to be cleared. No voice or noise amplification devices, flags, signs, or banners shall be permitted in the galleries of the House of Representatives.
The lawsuit, Polidor et al. v. Sexton et. al., was filed in the Chancery Court for Davidson County on behalf of Tennessee residents Allison Polidor, Erica Bowton, and Maryam Abolfazli.
The ACLU of Tennessee said the rule violates the plaintiffs’ “constitutional rights to speak freely, assemble and petition the government under the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions.”
“We applaud the court for taking swift action to protect the free speech rights of Tennesseans. Democracy depends on people’s ability to express their opinions to their elected representatives on issues they care about, and this unreasonable rule stood in the way of people fully participating in the democratic process,” ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Kathryn Sinback said in a statement.
Following an emergency order issued by a Davidson County judge blocking enforcement of a new House rule, the mothers concerned about gun violence are back in the committees with their signs. https://t.co/Qb6lSBPWum pic.twitter.com/hoLFvt9p2c
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) August 23, 2023
On Tuesday, the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit attended the House Civil Justice Subcommittee and held signs stating “1 KID > ALL THE GUNS.”
In response to the signs, a subcommittee member requested the chair have the plaintiffs removed from the hearing and, as a result, the House Sergeant-at-Arms and uniformed members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol escorted the plaintiffs out.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Tennessee State House Chamber” by Antony-22. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Exactly right, Mr. levelheaded conservative. This is the same issue that I thought the Tennessee General Assembly had addressed in legislation a couple of years ago, or so, when it created a Special Court to deal with the problem of very liberal (i.e., IMO leftist) Davidson County Chancellors constantly enjoining and overturning legislation which they did not approve of. Maybe that legislation needs to be amended to add procedural issues such as these here, but one would think that judges would have enough common sense to not make such additional amendments necessary. Indeed, there probably already exists Tennessee decisional law holding just exactly that. Yet, someone will probably say, Oh, but the General Assembly’s new rules are a violation of the Federal Constitution. To which I will reply with a simple question, Do the U. S. Senate and the U. S. House of Representatives allow signs etc. in their galleries? The answer to that question is known to all. No, in this case, IMO, this is just another instance of a left-leaning pol in black robes trying to support and promote the interests of the Democrats, and simply ought to be treated as such by the State of Tennessee’s General Assembly!
Judicial stupidity exists. This is a simple matter of the judge does not care what the rules are. or who is responsible for them. He has abandoned reason and replaced it with activism.
Since when does a judge set the house rules for the legislature??!
TN Legislative Leadership : Please fight this!
D.J. : Amen Brother!
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Justin Jones = nothing but trouble
Well now the children can jump up and down and wave their cute little signs. They better keep their yapping cake holes shut.
Let’s see how that same Democrat judge would like it if people were to protest/disrupt the proceedings in their courtroom. They have no standing to interfere with decorum and rules in the House floor and galleries, only the House gets to decide.
If they return with signs, they should be removed again. The judge does not set the rules of order IN the chamber – especially during session. The rules do not prohibit people with signs from gathering outside the building. They also do not single out any particular message.
This judge is wrong, the ability to set the rules of order belongs to the legislators and an appeal will surely allow for the rules to continue.
There are MANY holes in the argument presented to the judge, including – but not limited to – points 20 -22, which seem to bolster the authority of the legislature to put the rules in place.
My guess is this is a politicized judge.
I hope that the Davidson County judge’s decision is immediately appealed by the Tennessee General Assembly’s lawyer. IMO the judge’s decision is a bad decision that should not be allowed to stand. If guests in the gallery are to be allowed to bring signs, then why not let them also bring cowbells and horns? Indeed, why not allow the gallery guests to shout and scream and jump up and down and just generally ‘pitch’ a hissy fit during the General Assembly’s proceedings? The legislature should have the legal right to promulgate its own rules of decorum without the meddling of jurists elected from left-leaning judicial districts like Davidson County. After all, don’t our courts all across Tennessee order their own rules of decorum without the meddling of the Tennessee General Assembly?