Committee adopts draft amending disorderly conduct rules for public-body meetings, flags chair vs. body rule adoption

The Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee on a voice vote approved draft 2.2 of S.59, a bill that adds language from the Vermont Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Colby into the state disorderly conduct statute and expressly applies that standard to meetings of public bodies.

The vote followed a legal briefing by Tucker Anderson, legislative counsel, who told the committee that House Judiciary suggested folding the court’s two illustrative standards into the statute and applying them to the subdivision governing "disturb[ing] any lawful assembly or meeting of persons." Anderson said Judiciary recommended adding language that defines disruptive conduct to include “conduct that causes an assembly or meeting to terminate prematurely or consists of numerous and sustained efforts to disrupt an assembly or meeting after being asked to desist.”

The move to put the Colby examples directly into statute is intended…