Assembly Votes Down Resolution on Gallery Dressware with Information

Ejected for holding camera

- Party-line vote on resolution in state Assembly says no message on your clothes, no expression on your dressware -

Think silently wearing a shirt with the First Amendment text while sitting in the Assembly Gallery is your right? Silently holding a copy of the U.S. or Wisconsin constitutions is your right?

No, say Assembly Republicans. This is not hyperbole. The GOP claims it has the power to eject you, and they have done just that with 10-15 armed police acting under orders of the Sergeant of Arms and the GOP leadership.

Crazy time with these Republicans.

Emily Mills reports:

Toward the end of the Assembly's floor session Tuesday night, a resolution introduced by Reps. Mark Pocan and Chris Taylor to suspend a rule forbidding anyone sitting in the gallery from having or holding signs was voted down on a party-line vote of 35-57. ... many Democratic representatives wore buttons during the session displaying the text of the First Amendment.

The Republicans believe whatever assembly rules or interpretation of rules they make outweigh the Wisconsin and U.S. Constitutions, and all statutes. The police, reportedly often reluctantly, follow along with Republican orders.