Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s administration held its first informational session Tuesday on the new rules for state Capitol protests — under which demonstrators would have to pay potentially large amounts of money up front, in order to get a permit.
Stacy Harbaugh, communications director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, attended the session, which was hosted by officials from the Department of Administration — and in an interview Tuesday afternoon, told TPM that the group is still reviewing its legal options.
“Unfortunately, a lot of our questions continued to be unanswered,” Harbaugh told TPM. “The big thing that I think was a problem today was that the state Department of Administration didn’t provide an attorney to represent their position.
“People have a lot of legitimate questions, legal questions, about how these rules could even be enforced. So by not providing an attorney and answering their questions, the Department frankly wasted their time today. There are too many questions that are unanswered.”
As the Wisconsin State Journal reports, the meeting certainly did get contentious:
“Are you aware that this policy violates the United States Constitution?” asked Jenna Pope, who has been a regular protester at the Capitol over the last year.
“We don’t believe it does,” said Chris Schoenherr, deputy secretary for the state Department of Administration.
Others gathered at the meeting warned the new policy would lead to lawsuits and waste taxpayer money, and said it was too vague.
Later, the state ACLU put out a press release from Harbaugh. Key quote:
“I asked the representative of the DOA how decisions would be made to divide liability between a demonstration and a counterdemonstration, but that question was dismissed as a hypothetical situation on which they couldn’t comment,” said Stacy Harbaugh of the ACLU of Wisconsin. “Although the discussion often became heated, valid questions asked by participants about how their First Amendment rights would be protected were not answered. We are all left with too many unanswered questions.”
The ACLU of Wisconsin calls upon the state Department of Administration to ensure that an attorney or other staff will be present at future information sessions (scheduled in the Capitol Basement for Thursday at 4:00 p.m. and Saturday at 9:00 a.m.) who are authorized to respond to the legal concerns and questions citizens have about the details of the new rules. While the DOA insists that these rules were written based on their authority under the Administrative codes, questions remain about policies for law enforcement discretion, defining what activity requires a permit, and the legitimacy of requiring permits for expressive activity and holding individuals liable for police costs at demonstrations.
“It is understandable that order must be maintained at the Capitol,” said Harbaugh. “But these rules simply provide too much opportunity to not only suppress the free speech of the demonstrators who have been a constant and critical presence at the Capitol, but also serve to intimidate future protesters through fees and liability. It is in the public interest to allow greater freedom of speech in the Capitol, not to restrict it through this permitting scheme.”
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week, under the new policy groups of four or more people must request permits at least 72 hours in advance, for events at the state Capitol or other state buildings.
In addition, organizers would have to pay for the extra Capitol police officers, at a rate of $50 per hour per officer — plus costs for police officers brought in from outside agencies, according to the costs billed to the state. The police payment would have to be tendered in advance, as a requirement for getting a permit. Afterwards, organizers would then be charged for any clean-up costs.
