NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Davidson County chancellor ruled Monday that handheld signs can stay in the Tennessee House for the remainder of the special session.
"The court finds the state has no interest in enforcing an unconstitutional restriction, and it is at minimal risk of irreparable harm," Chancellor Anne Martin wrote in her ruling.
"In support of their showing irreparable harm, Plaintiffs have submitted declarations and video footage that demonstrates they were peaceably viewing and participating in the legislative proceedings and were removed from the forum after they would not put away their signs.
"Plaintiffs argue that they will suffer irreparable harm as their expression will be totally silenced and that defendants are not harmed as they have no legitimate government interest in violating First Amendment rights, and that Plaintiffs conduct of silently holding small signs cannot be said to have disrupted the House proceedings."
The chancellor heard arguments during a 55-minute hearing Monday in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee on behalf of three mothers who came to Capitol Hill last week to let their voices be heard during the special session.
During a House subcommittee meeting, state troopers forcibly removed Nashville mother Allison Polidor, who refused to drop to sign reading “1 KID > ALL THE GUNS.”
"This isn't what democracy looks like," Polidor called out to the subcommittee as a trooper steered her out of the committee room.
Two other women were ordered to leave.
Minutes later, subcommittee chairman Rep. Lowell Russell, R-Vonore, ordered the entire room cleared except for lawmakers and media.
House Republicans adopted new rules for the special session that prohibit all signs in the House gallery and committee rooms regardless of the size of those signs. They argued that it was necessary to maintain decorum during the emotionally charged debate following the Covenant shooting.
Martin had initially entered an order blocking the House from enforcing the new rules, but House Speaker Cameron Sexton had asked the chancellor to lift the order and allow the House to enforce its own rules.
ACLU legal director Stella Yarbrough argued that the Senate has managed to conduct its business without banning such signs.
"How can a sign be disruptive to one chamber but not the other?" Yarbrough asked, arguing that House Republicans are mainly interested in banning anti-gun messages.
She also noted that guns are allowed in House committee rooms, but pictures of guns are prohibited.
Assistant Attorney General Cody Brandon countered that such restrictions have been upheld in numerous other government forums and that the prohibition applies to protesters on all sides of these issues.
"Tennessee is not alone" in such restrictions, Brandon said.
Chancellor Martin noted that it was "interesting" that the sign prohibition had not been put in place prior to the legislature being called to debate public safety.
"It is targeted at this particular session," the judge said.
