Indiana Citizens Welcome at Their Own Statehouse After All

by Patricia Guadalupe  |  January 04, 2012

Union workers and their supporters gather in opposition to anti-union legislation before the Indiana legislature on February 22, 2011. (Photo credit: Greg Hansen)

Bowing to intense public pressure, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels today backed away from a recent edict that would have limited the number of people allowed into the Indiana Statehouse at any one time. If implemented, it would have squelched one of our fundamental freedoms: the right to petition our government.

The new limits announced last week would have restricted the number of visitors to 1,300. Governor Daniels said it was done because of public safety concerns about large crowds in the building, but critics say it’s no coincidence it was done right around the same time the Legislature was set to discuss a controversial “right to work” bill, and that registered lobbyists could still come and go as they pleased, untethered by the rule.

“He silenced the voices of 30,000 state employees by stripping them of collective bargaining rights on his first day in office and then he tried to silence working-class Hoosiers by denying them access to the Statehouse,” said David Warrick, Executive Director for Indiana AFSCME Council 62, and also an AFSCME international vice president.

“Governor Daniels doesn’t believe in giving regular Hoosiers a voice. He has a track record of quashing public hearings, public access and the voices of the public. Only after mounting outrage from fair-minded people, organizations and media outlets, has he decided to give the people’s house back to the people.”

Governor Daniels admitted the uproar over the new limitation was a major reason he rescinded it.