Allison Polidor, Maryam Abolfazli and Erica Bowton were ordered to be removed for holding signs during a subcommittee hearing.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed the lawsuit Wednesday in a Nashville state court on behalf of Allison Polidor, Maryam Abolfazli and Erica Bowton.
“These rules are unreasonable,” Stella Yarbrough, ACLU of Tennessee legal director, said in a news release. “The Tennessee House’s ban on silently holding signs in House galleries directly undermines Tennesseans’ First Amendment right to express their opinions on issues that affect them and their families.”
Along with kicking out the three plaintiffs, the same subcommittee chair, Republican Rep. Lowell Russell, also Polidor, a gun control advocate from Nashville, was escorted out of a hearing room because she was holding a sign that said, “1 KID” is greater than “ALL THE GUNS.” In 2017, signs were briefly prohibited from Cordell Hull — the building that contains both legislative committee rooms and offices for lawmakers and staffers — following demonstrations over refugee resettlements, Medicaid expansion and gas taxes.
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