The United States House of Representatives has long been tagged "the people's house" because the framers of the Constitution saw it as the side of the legislative branch most attuned to the needs of ordinary citizens.
The same has been true across the country of state Houses, but Republican legislative leaders in Tennessee are doing their best with a recent restriction to prove otherwise.
Last week, state House leaders began their business for the 2024 session by -- out of the blue -- requiring visitors on the 128-seat west side of the public galleries of the House chamber to have tickets. The 120-seat east side of the gallery remains first-come first-served but often is populated by lobbyists, interns, media, VIP guests, family members and others who have business at the Capitol. Previously, no tickets were needed for either gallery.
Tickets for the west side may be obtained, it was hastily explained, from any of the 99 House members, who have one ticket to distribute each day the House is in session.
In our minds, we can picture a set of parents from the rural midstate area who decide to come to the state Capitol on a day their two children are off from school to show them how their government works. Told the east side was full so they would need tickets, they have to leave the Capitol, find the Cordell Hull Building where many of the offices of House members are, knock on doors of people they've never met and hope they can find four of them who have a ticket they can offer.
Or, imagine the social studies teacher who wants to bring his class of 30. On a day when the east side is full, he better hope he can find 31 (32 if the bus driver wants to come in) House members who are still holding on to their tickets.
Is this any way to treat constituents?
We found even less acceptable the explanation about the change by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who implemented the restriction.
"If you don't like the ticketing thing, I suggest you write an article to Congress and complain about their ticketing," he told reporters. "If that is anti-public, then you need to call them out and ask them to change."
Are you kidding? The U.S. House has ticketing, so we need ticketing, so if you have a problem, ask them?
Is that the best he's got?
We thought House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, had a good retort.
"For them to say this is how it's done in Congress?" she said. "For years this [Republican] party have said they don't want to be like Congress."
Now, not to defend Sexton, but we understand he wants to prevent what happened last spring, and again during a special session in August, when gobs of vociferous protesters wielding signs and other potentially dangerous objects took over the galleries to rally for gun control measures following the March Covenant School shooting in Nashville in which six people died.
The scene became even more chaotic in the spring when three members of the House attempted to exhort from the floor the protesters in the gallery. That resulted in two of the members, state Reps. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, and Justin Jones, D-Nashville, being expelled (and later re-elected). The third member, state Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, has used the incident as a springboard to run for the U.S. Senate this year. And Sexton took a heap of criticism over the whole mess.
Democrats also legitimately complain that the lopsided House membership (75 Republicans, 24 Democrats) allows the GOP to determine who sits in the ticketed gallery. It could work that way, but we hope House members of both parties aren't as partisan as to clutch their tickets until one of their own comes along.
Asked about the issue, Sexton said, "Every single member has one ticket; that's not going to change. If they pick up more seats [in elections], they get more tickets. If they lose seats, they get less tickets. How is that not fair? Is that not the fairest way to do it?"
Well, no.
Surely, there must be some middle ground. Can rules for proper decorum and sign displays not be given to each attendee, for instance, with it made plain that rule-breakers will be removed from the gallery? House rules already allow the speaker to set guidelines for decorum. That, to us, is much preferable to the one-member, one-ticket policy.
Fortunately, the state Senate has not resorted to such foolishness. Their seats are still first-come, first-served.