Capitol protest rules reviewed

Utah political leaders are trying to figure out how "free" speech should be in the Capitol, especially during legislative sessions.

Attorney Brian Barnard, representing two animal rights activists, got a Utah federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order the final days of the 2008 Legislature after the two people were forced out of the Capitol for conducting a "spontaneous" protest by holding signs outside the third-floor House Chamber's main doors.

Barnard, who has made his reputation representing clients in constitutional cases, said that while he and federal Judge Tena Campbell can't write the new protest rules for political leaders, the leaders should make some "reasonable" rules concerning the right of free speech in the Capitol.

Otherwise, if protesters are "hassled" again, he will be back in federal court, Barnard said.

House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said legislative leaders were not pleased to learn recently that the Capitol Preservation Board and the Legislature itself have slightly different rules on public protests in the Capitol and on the grounds.

Curtis and Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, sit on the preservation board and believed that the rules were the same for both entities, the speaker said.

"We're going to try to address both sets of rules," said Curtis. That will involve making them the same, as well as updating them now that the Legislature has moved from its three-year temporary quarters in a building behind the Capitol into the restored main building.

Curtis promised that large groups will be able to have planned and spontaneous protests outside of the Capitol any time, and that protests can be inside the Capitol as long as they don't disrupt the work of lawmakers, either in their committee meetings or on the House and Senate floor.

Every winter there are groups that hold news conferences or protests as lawmakers meet in their 45-day general session in January and February.

Two years ago, Barnard, representing animal rights protesters and disabled Utahns, won a federal lawsuit after Utah Highway Patrol troopers, citing Capitol rules, refused to let protesters hand out leaflets in front of the temporary House chambers.

Lobbyists and other citizens routinely talk to legislators in crowded hallways outside of the House and Senate chambers and sometimes also give lawmakers printed information. But Capitol Hill rules supposedly didn't allow protesters to pass out fliers, which included some ugly pictures of people's rotting teeth.

Barnard won that suit, getting $15,000 in attorney's fees and small cash payouts to his clients, he said.