ACLU says Journalists and Citizens Should Not be Barred from Public Meetings – The Southland Journal

ACLU says Journalists and Citizens Should Not be Barred from Public Meetings For years, Rebecca Glenberg has been fighting for the rights of freedom of speech and rights for the public. Many people dont know their individual rights in their city or suburban municipalities at public meetings as citizens and journalists.

Everyone should have the right to attend a public meeting, said Rebecca Glenberg, ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Illinois attorney. If people behave in a disruptive way or interrupt people while speaking, those are activities that could get you kicked out of a meeting. But if you are engaged in public comment, the fact that you express a very strong opinion, the fact that you criticize your government or members of the public body should not be grounds for cutting you off or removing you from the meeting.

She said only your individual conduct would cause any discipline from the board or public body. There are also some standard rights for journalists who attend public meetings.

Journalists have the same rights as the public to attend the meeting. They have the right to take notes, and by statute, have the right to record the meeting and report out anything that is said at a meeting. Journalists should not be barred from a public meeting merely because they are journalists or because they have said things that are critical to the public body in the past, added Glenberg.

For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been our nations guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country. With more than 4 million members, activists, and supporters, the ACLU is a nationwide organization.

In addition to freedom of speech, the ACLU protects the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, LGBTQ status, national origin and religion. It protects the right to vote. It protects the right of immigrants to due process and fair treatment, said Glenberg. We really protect a broad range of issues related to civil rights and Constitutional rights. We are the biggest organization that tackles all these individual issues.

Some of the ACLU highlights include standing almost alone in denouncing the federal government intermittent presence of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps and representing an interracial couple in 1967 landmark Supreme Court cases Loving vs. Virginia. The court ruled that the state ban on interracial marriage was unconstitutional. In 2015, the ACLU won a constitutional case on same sex couples to marry, and in 2018 won a case where it was ruled that sensitive cell phone location data is protected by the Fourth Amendment, requiring the government to get a warrant to access it.

Glenberg also talked about protesting regulations. She said municipalities can require permits for large gatherings, especially those that will block a busy street, but they can not require permits for a small group of people who are going to be in an outdoor space or corner where there are no opportunities to disrupt traffic or businesses.

People have the right to protest in such a way that they do not block pedestrian or vehicular traffic unduly and dont cause property damage. You need to look at your particular city, town or county ordinance to see whether you may need a permit to protest, she said.

ACLU says Journalists and Citizens Should Not be Barred from Public Meetings

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ACLU says Journalists and Citizens Should Not be Barred from Public Meetings - The Southland Journal