Shouting not protected at NC General Assembly, court says

You can't get too loud in the hallways of the North Carolina General Assembly, a state Court of Appeals panel said Thursday in a case that dates back to the 2017 protest arrest of then-NAACP state chapter president Rev. William Barber.

Barber was part of a group chanting outside Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger's office as part of a series of protests backing Medicaid expansion, a program that would provide taxpayer-funded health insurance for hundreds of thousands of people—primarily working poor—in North Carolina. After warnings to quiet down or face arrest, Barber was arrested. His prosecution became a test case for protest rights at the legislative building.

Appeals Court judges in the case said Tuesday that Barber's First Amendment rights weren't violated when he was charged with misdemeanor trespassing.

"This is not a case about free speech – it is a case about loud speech," Judge Chris Dillon wrote for the panel in this case. "Defendant was not expelled from the General Assembly for the content of his words. He was removed for their volume."

Attempts to reach Barber and his lawyer were not immediately successful Tuesday, and they may appeal. Barber, who has moved on from the NAACP to head a national movement centered on better treatment for poor people and various minority groups, said during his trial that he wasn't yelling but using his "preaching voice" that day to lead a call and response.

"Democracy is raucous, it's loud, it's messy. It's supposed to be," defense attorney John McWilliam added in his closing arguments in the 2019 trial.

Barber got probation, 24 hours community service and a $200 fine when the jury found him guilty.

The Court of Appeals decision Tuesday was essentially unanimous, though Judge Lucy Inman wrote her own opinion, saying she agreed with the majority's conclusion but felt the case required a different analysis.

Judge Jeffery Carpenter joined Dillon's majority opinion. The majority noted that General Assembly building rules don't speak to the "nature or content" of people's speech but say a visitor "may not disturb" the legislature. The judges called these reasonable "time, place and manner" restrictions on speech, along the lines of rules upheld in other First Amendment cases. Inman concurred on that.

"The interior of the General Assembly complex is comparable to a courthouse in this regard," Dillon wrote for the majority. "Certainly, while citizens are free to visit the General Assembly and communicate with members and staff, the government may prohibit loud, boisterous conduct on a content-neutral basis that would affect the ability of members and staff to carry on legislative functions."