Does H.R. 347 Change Anything About Your Right to Protest Politicians Under Secret Service Protection? It's All In the Word Change.
As Brian Doherty noted below, on Tuesday the House passed H.R. 347 [pdf], officially known as The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. Now all it needs to become law is President Obama's approving signage. Contrarian standbys Congressmen Justin Amash (R-MI) and Ron Paul (R-TX) voted nay, but the bill passed 388-3. Rep. Amash wrote that the the bill "violates our rights", but Michael Mahassey, the communications director for the bill's sponsor, Rep. Thomas J.Rooney (R-Florida), sounding irritated on Wednesday (while he implied that I was not the first person to call and ask about it). Mahassey called the reaction to the bill "a whole lot of kerfuffle over nothing. This doesnt affect anyones right to protest anywhere at any time. Ever. ... Current law makes it illegal to enter or remain in an area where certain government officials (more particularly, those with Secret Service protection) will be visiting temporarily if and only if the person knows it's illegal to enter the restricted area but does so anyway. The bill expands current law to make it a crime to enter or remain in an area where an official is visiting even if the person does not know it's illegal to be in that area and has no reason to suspect it's illegal. (It expands the law by changing "willfully and knowingly" to just "knowingly" with respect to the mental state required to be charged with a crime.) ... So, lets say a G-20 meeting is hosted in the U.S. and the Secret Service decides it wants a larger perimeter surrounding the event where only G-20 members and staff can be. A person could be arrested and found guilty of violating this lawwith up to 10 years in prison if theyre carrying a weapon, one year in prison if theyre notfor merely walking into the restricted area, without even knowing walking into the area is illegal. http://reason.com/blog/2012/03/01/does-hr-347-the-trespass-bill-change-any What's your prediction? Does President Obama sign it or not? I say of course he does. J - The Constitution does not grant rights, it recognizes them - Jason Laumark It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. - David Hume ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:348041 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
