Legislature should let Utahns speak out

It never fails to amaze me just how self-serving people who make the laws can be.

If Utah state government leaders adopt the "free speech" rules for the Capitol complex that were preliminarily discussed this week, here is what you will have in the main buildings on Capitol Hill: You will be able to bring your gun into the Capitol but not your protesting voice.

Try to explain that one to any thinking person.

State legislative and executive branch leaders and bureaucratic bosses — operating as the Capitol Preservation Board — are upset because of an especially loud, disturbing and embarrassing protest earlier this year where advocates for the poor and disabled clustered in a group inside the Legislature's temporary West Building and wore large, admittedly disturbing signs of rotten teeth.

The Legislature, in a move most lawmakers would soon regret, were just about to go into a special legislative session where they would approve a new $15 million parking lot on Capitol Hill but deny $2 million for emergency dental care for Utah's most needy citizens.

Legislators were about to get a real public kicking for those actions.

In typical fashion for those who make the laws, legislators decided to strike back by — you guessed it — banning protesters from public hallways, parking lots and other areas so they, the voter-anointed, wouldn't have to deal with them again.

I've covered the Legislature for 25 years. And, yes, there have been times when protesters came into the old Capitol rotunda — the heart of one of the most beautiful buildings in the state — and shouted objections to legislators, making a lot of noise.

Senate and House members had difficulty conducting business because of the roars just outside the large metal doors outside their chambers.

But I didn't see it as an inconvenience or hardship. I found it democracy in action, and really rather exciting.

Not so our legislators.

Over the last year, protesters have sued the state twice over freedom-of-speech issues and won both cases.

For one more year — until the $200 million remodeling of the Capitol building is finished — legislators will continue to meet in the West Building; Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and the three other statewide elected officials will be housed in the East Building.