ACLU considers First Amendment lawsuit over roped-off rotunda during R.I. State of the State speech – The Boston Globe

While the First Amendment protects free speech rights, courts have ruled that the government can place reasonable restrictions on the time, place and manner of expression.

“The question is whether, in this particular instance, it was a pretext for denying the free speech rights of this group,” Brown said. It’s significant, he said, that “the rotunda was not, in fact, used in any meaningful way during that whole period of time,” during which McKee delivered his speech in the House chamber.

People used to be prohibited from using the rotunda for rallies or protests, Brown said. But in 1973, a group working on poverty issues, including the Sisters of Mercy and Sister Mary Reilly, went to the State House to pray, chant and sing in protest of then-Governor Philip Noel’s proposed budget cuts to programs that served the poor. Noel’s administration had them removed, claiming the prayer services were too loud and disruptive.

So the ACLU filed a lawsuit. And in a 1974 decision, then-US District Court Judge Raymond J. Pettine ruled for Sister Reilly, stating, “I find that the State House rotunda is a public forum appropriate for the exercise of these First Amendment rights.”

On Jan. 14, protesters came to the State House to call for McKee, a Democrat, to declare a public health emergency to help homeless people during the cold weather — a step he has rejected, saying it would not unlock any additional funding. The protesters also were calling for raising taxes on the richest 1 percent of Rhode Islanders.

Tuttle said that after he got to the State House, Capitol Police eventually told him he was banned from the rotunda, by name, per orders of the governor. The rotunda was roped off with a sign that read, “This space has been reserved for the State of the State through the Department of Administration” from 4:30 to 10 p.m. And State Police and Capitol Police blocked each rotunda entrance.

Tuttle said police told protesters to use the first-floor Bell Room, and they would not allow speakers to use a microphone. Protesters eventually began to march around the first floor, chanting “Whose house? Our house!” But Tuttle said the police told the protesters they could not continue to march, and police later escorted him from the second floor, threatening him with arrest.

“I believe that the governor of Rhode Island exercised his power to restrict Rhode Islanders from providing an alternative view as to what the state of the state actually is,” Tuttle said. “We talk about Rhode Islanders living paycheck to paycheck, how buying a home is completely out of the question for a majority of Rhode Islanders.”

The McKee administration also blocked TV news cameras from the House chamber during the State of the State speech, meaning the only broadcast camera was from the state-controlled Capitol TV. A McKee spokesperson later said there was “miscommunication resulting from a transition in staff” and TV cameras would be allowed in the chamber again next year.

But Brown said, “It was really a double whammy for the First Amendment that night. It was really troubling to see both of those things happen at the same time.”

Brown said the message for McKee regarding future protests should be clear: “Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of any democracy, including here at the state level,” he said. “Governors and all public officials should do their best to respect the rights of individuals to exercise that right to free speech, to criticize government actions, as has happened here. The State House is just too important a symbolic place to try to stifle the exercise of free speech.”

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Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.