Posted on 03/03/2011 6:36:49 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
A judge weighing whether state officials overstepped their bounds by restricting protesters' access to the state Capitol nearly ordered all the demonstrators out on moments' notice Wednesday evening before state and union attorneys talked him out of it.
Dane County Circuit Judge John Albert has been listening to two days of testimony on whether he should make a temporary court order ensuring full public access to the building permanent. He is expected to rule on the matter Thursday.
He told the packed courtroom shortly after 6 p.m. that he wanted to test the state Department of Administration's contention that building access would return to normal quickly if the protesters who have spent the last two weeks sleeping overnight in the rotunda left. He presented a draft order that would have forced anyone who was still in the Capitol after its regular 6 p.m. closing time to be out by 8 p.m. and said he planned to have DOA officials hand one to each protester.
"It's worth a try," a weary-sounding Albert said as he massaged his temples. "They should be out of the Capitol because it's closed to business."
The order would have given the 100 or so protesters still camping out in the Capitol only minutes' notice and potentially set up confrontations with the multiple police agencies that have been guarding the building.
Assistant Attorney General Steven Means, who is representing the DOA, urged Albert not to do it. He said the order wouldn't be fair because the protesters didn't get a chance to be heard. Union attorney Peg Lautenschlager pointed out that the protesters may not take the order seriously because she contends the DOA has ignored the temporary court order to fully open the building.
"If you do the order, I don't know how people in the building will react," she said.
Albert reluctantly relented and decided to resume the hearing Thursday afternoon.
The protesters are among tens of thousands of others who demonstrated in and around the Capitol for two weeks against Republican Gov. Scott Walker's plan to strip most public workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights. They've had free run of most of the building and the grounds for days, staging massive rallies, pounding bongo drums and spending the nights on the Capitol's floor on air mattresses and in sleeping bags. They even set up their own makeshift day care center in the building's north wing.
The DOA announced Friday that everyone had to be out by 4 p.m. Sunday so crews could finally clean the building. Agency Secretary Mike Huebsch testified Wednesday that protesters jammed the Capitol at 4 p.m. that day hoping to get arrested, going so far as to write their attorneys' phone numbers in marker on their arms.
Huebsch said he decided not to have police remove the protesters by force because he wanted to avoid confrontations between protesters and police.
[snip]
"Normal people don't sit cross-legged on the floor and bang on drums," he said in court. "It's an uncivil situation."
Huebsch said he believes access could return to normal quickly if the overnight campers would leave.
"These restrictions are meant to be short-term," he said.
Curtailing the demonstrations is the last thing Democrats and unions want. The protests have been one of their most effective weapons against the bill, helping them drawing national attention to the debate.
Three unions won a temporary court order Tuesday to keep the Capitol completely open during normal business hours. The DOA didn't change its policies, however. Agency officials said they believe the building is open.
Bump!
Get the vagrants out of the capitol!
Talked him out of it....after they kneecapped him with a baseball bat
After this brief moment of lucidity, the fog rolled in once again.
Courtrooms are public places. Have them camp out in there and stink up the place. That would be fun to watch.
They'll cry for their mama when they get thrown in jail for disobeying a judge's order. Too bad, so sad. Throw the book at them. Give them the max. Scare them straight. Cut the electricity and water and don't let any food in. Without their Starbucks and no potty, they'll be out within an hour.
All he has to do is look at the fire code... if the number of people in the building exceeds the limit, by law they have to either shut down the building or at least remove a certain number of people...
Is there any way to turn off the cell phone towers around the building? That would surely send them out, haha!
what would ya bet that hishoner would have em all arrested yesterday if they were rummagin around the courthouse and demanding ‘full’ access to the chambers at all hours ??? hmmmm???
I think the fastest and simplest way to clear them out would be to allow the homeless to join them and sleep next to them.
Wow talk about a biased headline. It's not as if they are being evicted from their apartments, they're sleeping in frickin' public hallways. As for the confrontations, there would be no confrontations, well that's up to the protesters. It's certainly not the fault of the court if these kooks decide to cause trouble at closing time.
They should be allowed to camp out in the unused offices of the runaways—no one’s using the offices, and that’ll make the offices nice and stinky for ‘em when they get back.
Rent a pair of big conference rooms at the Marriot and announce that the Legislature would be meeting there until further notice. The Capitol is just a building. The Legislature could meet anywhere.
Great idea
The fastest way to get them out would be to announce that they are giving away free FEMA cards across the street
The Homeless wouldn't go for it because the Hippies smell too bad!
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