Ban keeping Rev. Barber and other protesters from Legislative Building may be tossed

Raleigh -- A Wake County judge said at a hearing Wednesday that an order banning protesters from the North Carolina Legislative Building is “entirely too broad.”

The Rev. William Barber, the state NAACP president, and 31 other protesters were arrested May 30 at the Legislative Building during a sit-in protest over health care after they refused to clear the hallways. The protesters were charged with second degree trespassing.

A magistrate set the ban as a condition of the protesters’ release from jail. Barber said the ban kept him from entering the building in June with NAACP activists who delivered letters to state legislators.

Geeta Kapur, an attorney who challenged the ban for the N.C. NAACP and Forward Together Moral Movement, said her clients have the right to be at the Legislative Building conducting business just like any lobbyist does.

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