They were testing the boundaries of what folks would put up with.
What I really hate are the people that say - “see, they didn’t get away with it, so stop being so alarmed”.
Just like the things you see in California - some ahole legislator tries to get Communism taught in schools, or homeschooling outlawed, or Marxine Waters threatens to “socialize” the oil industry, and we’re supposed to “not worry about it” because they didn’t get it done.
They're doing that every minute of every day.