Conflating the First Amendment with Immunity from Arrest and Removal
By Dan Cadman, June 1, 2017
A melee broke out on the floor of the Texas Legislature the other day (see here and here). The precipitating event was the presence of demonstrators in the gallery of the chamber, a number of them wearing T-shirts and placards proclaiming "I'm illegal and I'm here to stay" and the like. Some allege that they became vocal, disrupting the proceedings. They were there to protest the Republican-dominated legislature's recent passage, and the governor's signature into law, of an anti-sanctuary statute prohibiting officials from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Considering the matter, I'm persuaded that the protesters were aided and abetted by sympathetic Democratic lawmakers. With safety measures in public edifices being what they are today, there is almost zero chance that those placards would have made it past the security perimeter unless someone's staffer brought them into the building via an employee entrance, and then passed them out to the protesters prior to going into the gallery. But that's neither here nor there.
http://cis.org/cadman/conflating-first-amendment-immunity-arrest-and-removal
