April 03, 2006

Legislators Scramble to Fix Legislation

I just received word that, this evening, state senator Bill Ketron is going to try to recall the bill I wrote about earlier today which would allow the General Assembly leadership to clear the streets and sidewalks of protestors if they felt the need to.

Ketron, a cosponsor of the original bill, wants to fix the language so that it would not include "sidewalks."

This is what happens when legislators don't read the bills they are voting on. Unfortunately for the citizens that are being represented, it happens all the time. This is also what happens when legislators pass knee-jerk legislation.

Update: The Tennessean has a story up about Ketron's move to ammend/fix the bill.

Update II: Text of Ketron's amendment can be found here. (PDF format)

It deletes any references to "and sidewalks" in SB 2704 and HB 3778. It also expounds upon citizens' rights to assemble and petition their lawmakers.

Too bad they didn't remember that the first go-round.

Update III: The Senate has pushed any action on Ketron's amendment back to Thursday. The original sponsor of the bill, Sen. Cooper, was out today (he's also mentioned here today). They are also going to have to formally request the bill back from the House since it already passed the Senate.

Personally, I think they should just gut the entire bill and drop the matter. As I said, knee-jerk legislation is never a good thing.

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