ATLANTA — Two politicians arrested inside the Georgia State Capitol in separate incidents, one in 2018 and another in 2021, are fighting a statute that lawyers defending them said is unconstitutional. The attorneys claim the protests the lawmakers and others were arrested for weren't actually disruptions.
Attorney Gerry Weber added, the state statute is preventing free speech.
“That’s why the text of the statute is really important. There's people knocking on the doors of the Capitol all the time, and if they don't intend to disrupt something and they don't actually disrupt something, they shouldn't go to jail for that,” said Weber. “And that's what happened to Representative Cannon. And that's what happens under this statute because it's poorly written.”
In 2021, Georgia State Rep. Park Cannon was arrested after she knocked on the governor's office doors as he was signing a controversial election bill into law. Three years earlier, in 2018, then-State Senator Nikema Williams and 14 others were arrested after going inside the Capitol and protesting how the elections were handled in the state.
Attorneys for both lawmakers appeared before the Georgia Supreme Court justices on Wednesday.
“We are challenging a statute that was, as written, would prevent speech at the Capitol. If a Capitol police officer happened to think that it was disruptive, even though it did not actually disrupt a meeting or anything, and even though the person didn't intend it. And we think that the State Capitol is the heart of state government, where free speech should be at its maximum. And people shouldn't be risking jail—our clients were strip searched and jailed and charges dismissed—for simply speaking their mind at the State Capitol."
But Principal Deputy Solicitor General Ross Bergethon said in this case, context matters.
“The Capitol building is not a public park. It's the seat of two branches of government and it's the workplace of hundreds of state employees. The state's not obligated to open the Capitol at all. The U.S. Capitol is not open in the same way, for instance, but it has and I think we'd all agree that's a good thing. The disruption statute simply reflects the nature of the building.”
Bergethon added, it's not about limiting anyone's right to expression.
“It’s about making sure that the people working in the Capitol or attending a lawful assemblage there are free to engage in their own exchange of ideas or perform their work without undue interference from others," Bergethon said.
Devin Barrington-Ward, who was arrested during the protest in 2018, said everyone has a right to peacefully protest, regardless if they're a state lawmaker or an everyday person.
“My hope is that they make the right ruling, but this continues to go through the federal court system, as well. And that we are repaired through the harm that we experience on the infringement of our right to peacefully assemble and protest,” he said.