Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Monday reintroduced legislation aimed at curbing public protests by bringing felony charges and steep civil penalties against protesters and organizers of street protests and other activities that block public places.
The measure was introduced last year but failed to reach a vote, even in the Republican-controlled House. It faced serious push back from the public and several legislators, who worried that it infringed on the First Amendment right to assemble.
The legislation, HB 71 and SB 74, would subject individual protesters, organizers and conspirators of unpermitted protests that block or obstruct public places and roadways to class C felony charges, which can result in up to five years in prison.
Under current law, unpermitted protests can land people with $1,000 fines but not criminal charges.
Dunleavy and his supporters argue the measures are needed to ensure people can travel throughout the state.
The civil fines in the bill could also quickly balloon under the bill. It would make people participating in the protests liable for fines ranging from $10,000 to $500,000 per person affected by the protests with no cap. That would range from $10,000 per person who doesn’t suffer any physical injury or property damage but is inconvenienced by the protests to $500,000 per person who somehow dies from the protests.
Alaskans could still protest in public places, but they would need to first get a permit.
In a hearing last year, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor also confirmed that the legislation could be used to criminalize homelessness in the event someone blocks a trail or path.
“I think that would keep them from putting their tents across sidewalks, roadways, alleyways. I think that they’d be more limited to parks,” he said, according to a report by the Anchorage Daily News.
The legislation faced broad opposition, including from the AFL-CIO, whose leadership noted that the legislation could be weaponized against labor protests and picket lines.
“Where this bill gets tricky is in a different type of public space — the sidewalk,” wrote AFL-CIO President Joelle Hall to the Legislature in March 2024. “We most often line sidewalks outside of the businesses that are under boycott or strike. I am sure we can see how this coule be weaponized during a labor action if workers were on a public sidewalk near their place of work. Employers would be able to take civil action against their employees and use this as an intimidation tactic to disrupt strikers.”
Hall noted that most municipalities permit protests in the street — which she said is acceptable and makes sense to ensure safety — but don’t have a way to permit sidewalk protests, meaning that all sidewalk protests could fall under the proposed penalties.
Why it matters
The measure reflects a broader GOP crackdown on public protests, with many arguments focusing on placing the right to travel above the right to freedom of speech. They’ve used a handful of anecdotes, such as delayed ambulances, as justification for harsh penalties against unpermitted street protests. Some GOP bills have gone as far as granting drivers legal immunity for running over protesters, of which there were more than 100 documented incidents during the 2020 George Floyd protests.
All that said, the legislation faces no realistic pathway to passage under the current legislative layout. Even the Dunleavy-aligned House Republican Majority from last year’s session couldn’t muster the votes for the bill after some libertarian-leaning conservative legislators broke from the rest of the GOP to oppose the bill. Now, a coalition of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans is in the majority, allowing them to control the flow of bills.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
