(NC) Lawmakers trying to stifle protesters?

By FANNIE FLONO
The Charlotte Observer
May 15, 2014

The optics weren't good for North Carolina's Republican-dominated legislature last spring when Moral Monday protesters started showing up as lawmakers met and passed controversial legislation ...

So, this should come as no surprise: On Thursday, the second day of the short session of the N.C. General Assembly, the Legislative Services Commission met for the first time in 15 years to change the rules governing public access to the legislature. The changes they passed target Moral Monday protests directly and place limits on such gatherings.

One rule change specifies behaviors that could violate legislative rules and trigger arrests, including "singing and clapping," behaviors Moral Monday protesters engaged in regularly last year. Another rule change prohibits signs on "handsticks" or signs that "disturb" legislators. Another places size limits on gatherings outside the General Assembly ...

North Carolina Central University Law professor Irv Joyner, though, pinpoints the constitutional problem with the changes. Said Joyner: "The new rules are vague, overbroad and are incapable of a consistent application. For example, the definitions for what constitutes a 'disturbance' and what will 'imminently disturb' legislators and/or their staff members have no reasoned definition and, therefore, are fatally flawed" ...

http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/15/3449498/opinion-lawmakers-trying-to-stifle.html