By Tad Vezner

St. Paul Pioneer Press

The day after a heated House hearing that had to be shut down, Gov. Mark Dayton weighed in on a series of bills going through the Legislature that would heighten criminal and financial penalties against some protesters.

“I feel very strongly that (the right to protest) is a fundamental right that needs to be honored and protected, even when people disagree with what’s being said,” Dayton said, adding that he himself protested the Vietnam War at a time when the president’s administration “was very oppressive, very repressive. Harassed dissenters and tried to incarcerate.”

But Dayton said he was concerned about protests that blocked highways and couldn’t support them.

“I would draw the line at something like, as I said when it happened, shutting down a freeway. That’s putting the public safety at serious risk,” he said, adding that he was looking at a standalone measure against those that would block routes to the airport — which he said posed “an even broader public safety concern.”

This year, at least three bills have been drafted that would heighten penalties against protesters — with their authors saying they are aiming them primarily at those who would seek to block highways or the airport.

One bill would solidify the penalty for obstruction of legal process, a common charge applied in a variety of circumstances, to a mandated felony in all cases. Another would heighten penalties against those intentionally blocking freeway routes from a misdemeanor to a gross misdemeanor.