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Tom Hayden's avatar

I mean there were nazis zoom bombing the whole citizen comment thing!

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Paul Breslin's avatar

I have corresponded with Biss about this problem. I suggested he should rule the hateful comments out of order, not because they are offensive (which opens the 1st Amendment can of worms), but because they are irrelevant. (Nothing on the agenda to consider whether rabbis crawl up from sewers, etc.)

He replied that unfortunately, an OMA counselor had said that any restriction of content would be a violation.

I found only one sentence in the OMA about rights of non-members attending an open meeting, at 5 ILCS 5, sec 2.06 (g): “Any person shall be permitted an opportunity to address public officials under the rules established and recorded by the public body.” So if you flout those rules, you forfeit your right to speak, There’s nothing in the OMA that says all subject matter must be permitted.

Robert’s Rules is quite emphatic: in Section 61.19 it says “An assembly has the right to protect itself from annoyance by nonmembers.” The chair “has the power to require nonmembers to leave the hall, or to order their removal . . . and the nonmembers have no right of appeal from such an order of the presiding officer.”

So Biss reserves the right to shut us up, but has no plan to silence the Nazis?

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Tom Hayden's avatar

I think it will be moot shortly since they seem to have moved on

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Paul Breslin's avatar

I sure hope you’re right!

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