Image Credit: John Partipilo
By Anita Wadhwani [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
A Davidson County Chancery Court judge has set an expedited hearing for Monday in a legal dispute over a decision by the Tennessee House of Representatives to ban protest signs during a specially called session on public safety.
In the order issued Friday, Chancellor Anne Martin said a temporary restraining order will remain in place, preventing House members and officials from enforcing the ban on signs.
Martin issued the temporary restraining order Wednesday in response to an emergency filing by the ACLU of Tennessee — representing three women ejected from a House committee hearing. The suit challenged the House rule on free speech grounds.
On Thursday, House Speaker Cameron Sexton and the other defendants in the suit — represented by the office of the Tennessee Attorney General — responded by challenging Martin’s authority to block the rule as an intrusion by one branch of government into another. Lawyers also questioned Martin’s decision to swiftly issue an emergency order absent a hearing or opportunity for their legal response. They sought a dissolution of the temporary order and a hearing within 24 hours.
“The Court stands by its decision that the issuance of the (temporary restraining order) was proper and consistent with its obligations under Tennessee law,” Martin’s three-page order said. “The Court noted the swiftness with which it acted is expected when such extraordinary relief is requested.”
Martin noted the initial petition was accompanied by “declarations of facts that compelled immediate relief before a hearing with the other side could be convened. It was supported by five sworn statements and a thumb drive including two videos of the incident that precipitated the filing and evidenced an enforcement of the policy that was subject of the action.”
The hearing is set for 11 a.m. Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court.
2 Responses
Hopefully the Judge will start by reviewing TC Art II, section 12.
According to the Tennessee Constitution, the House and Senate have the power to actually
Imprison the disorderly, contemptuous non members.
Text of Article II, Section 14:
Each House may punish, by imprisonment, during its session, any person not a member, who shall be guilty of disrespect to the House, by any disorderly or any contemptuous behavior in its presence.
Judging from the power given to the legislators in the above article of the TN State constitution, it would seem that the protesters should be grateful that they were simply removed from the hearing room and not delivered to the Davidson County jail….
I was in the hearing room at the time, trying to watch the hearings. I witnessed that, as the Sergeant-at Arms respectfully and repeatedly told the protesting “non members” to lower their signs, and they defiantly refused to do so, continuing to angrily wave them and say they would not comply.
After two were removed by State troopers, the legislators moved forward with business ( though protesters still waved their signs), until a third person caused a disturbance. After that, the chairman of the committee evacuated the non members. People in attendance, who had not been disruptive in any way, asked if they could remain inside. The chairman said it would be impossible to distinguish among the folks gathered, so out everyone went.
The selfishness of the protesters had the result of no non member citizen being able to attend the hearing. Furthermore, their chaos continued outside the room, where they were so loud that no one could hear/follow the proceedings on the TV screen outside the Hearing room. Additionally, such disruptions continued to pop up through the session this week, and it quickly appeared as if it had largely been organized/orchestrated for the press, an optics event…stunts designed to enrage gun control activists around the country.
Bottom line—
Contemptuous disrespect was met with calm enforcement of legitimate authority.
Let’s pray that the rule of law will prevail in this and in general in our land. Seems no law is honored or followed or enforced anywhere these days.