Bills targeting demonstrators met with resistance

GOP measures would test line for civil liberties

The various protests of 2016 have sparked lawmakers in eight states to consider bills boosting penalties for unlawful demonstrations, including a proposal to protect drivers who “unintentionally” run over activists blocking roads and another aimed at forcing protesters to pay up to three times the costs of any damage they caused.

A lawmaker in Washington termed some protests “economic terrorism” and introduced a bill that would permit judges to tack on an additional year in jail to a sentence if the protester was “attempting to or causing an economic disruption.”

In Minnesota, a person convicted of participating or being present at “an unlawful assembly” could be held liable for costs in- curred by police and other public agencies.

And in Indiana, a proposed law would direct police encountering a mass traffic obstruction to clear the road by “any means necessary,” echoing a phrase made famous by Malcolm X during the 1960s civil rights movement.

“We’re not trying to restrict people’s right to protest peaceably,” said Iowa Sen. Jake Chapman, a Republican. He introduced his bill, increasing the penalty for blocking a high-speed highway from a misdemeanor to a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, after an anti-Donald Trump protest by high school students in November blocked one direction of Interstate 80 for 30 minutes.

“But there’s appropriate places and times. And the interstate is not one of those places. … Right now they’re going to get charged with jaywalking and fined $35. That doesn’t fit the crime, in my opinion.”

Lee Rowland, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union specializing in First Amendment issues, said she had seen occasional attempts to crack down on protests over the years. “But I’ve never seen a coordinated attack on protesters’ rights anywhere near this scale,” Rowland said. “What all of these bills have in common is they may be dressed up as being about obstruction or public safety, but make no mistake about it: These are about suppressing protests with draconian penalties so that the average person would think twice before getting out on the street and making their voice heard.”

Cody Hall, who was arrested while protesting the Dakota Access pipeline, said the measures would set back civil rights.

“We’re going backwards 60 years,” Hall said.

None of the measures, which were all proposed by Republicans, have passed yet.