Committee backs SB 1635 on arrest alerts but counsel urges clearer language to limit First Amendment risk
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Summary
Senate Bill 1635, which limits alerts about imminent or ongoing law-enforcement arrest efforts, was recommended by the committee; the rules attorney said the bill tries to narrow the restriction but advised clarifying terms such as "imminent" and the use of "surveillance" to avoid unintended First Amendment suppression.
A rules committee recommended Senate Bill 1635 as constitutional and in proper form after counsel reviewed the bill’s attempt to criminalize or limit alerts that notify a person targeted for arrest about imminent law-enforcement actions.
Tim Fleming, the committee’s rules attorney, said the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that verbally opposing or challenging police action, in the absence of an actual risk of arrest, can be central to protected expression. He said SB 1635 attempts to connect prohibited alerts to "imminent ongoing efforts to arrest," but recommended clarifying the statutory language—specifically the definitions of "imminent" and how the bill uses the word "surveillance"—so courts could not read the provision more broadly than intended.
Fleming said, "This bill actually does try to connect... the imminent ongoing efforts to arrest type of activity with the notifications... There is one suggestion... that its definition of imminent or ongoing efforts to arrest and including the word the use of the word surveillance to just connect that back more clearly..." After discussion, the committee recorded a 5–3 vote in favor of recommending the bill as constitutional and in proper form.
Fleming offered drafting advice intended to reduce ambiguity about scope; no further committee action on the bill was recorded in this transcript.