"Narcis Soler, cleric of Erastil."

"Tetula, cleric of Cayden Cailean!" 

Enric has realized 'rights' is Galt-speak for ‘things the baron isn’t allowed to do to you’ and wants to get as many of those as possible.

"Enric Porras, I have a farm out in the plains. I guess I'm representing the what common people demand part, and then we can figure out how much the queen and the nobles will actually let us have."

"Victòria, priestess of Calistria." 

"Korva Tallandria. I work at an orphanage in Egorian."

The Erecuran is here. She's going to make some attempt to look neutral, there, since she doesn't in fact know what his intentions are or anything about him. 

"Theopho Lebanel, of Westcrown, former citizen of Rahadoum. Also high priest of Erecura, but I don't expect that to come up much here."

"Xavier Requena i Cortes, Archduke of Sirmium, late of the northern reaches."

"Very good. I have a few initial proposals, based on Kintargo's experience with a particularly egregious Thrune shortly before the liberation, and then I'll open the floor to others."

"First: no sumptuary laws. Class and wealth should not limit what may be worn. With the possible exception of insignia formally indicating military or noble rank that would be considered impersonation."

"Second: no limits on peaceful assembly, in public or otherwise, outside conditions of martial law."

"Third: no limits on peaceful speech, under the same qualifiers."

"...What if someone uses 'peaceful' words to try to convince people to worship Asmodeus?"

That also doesn't cover almost any of the rights Victòria cares about, but she can suggest more once she's pointed out the obvious problem.

Why does the Duchess think sumptuary laws are important? Rights are for people who have no way to defend themselves against officials, not people who dress like nobles and have enough money to bribe them anyway.

No Censorship is in fact the primary reason that Korva decided to sign up for this committee, but please let someone else speak in favor of it first? The Archduchess brought it up, so she can't be entirely alone, and she'd really like to not be declared the most obvious diabolist here.

"Military, noble, or religious rank. People trust me when I wear this thing," his mini bow and arrow, for a while he was just using an actual full sized one, "and that shouldn't be up for grabs."

To Victoria: "Do you really think people would worship Asmodeus if they had access to full and accurate information about other gods?"

There's a solid argument for this that they make in Absalom but Theopho is not the one to share it.

"If someone tries to tell everyone worship Asmodeus, we now know they're a cultist of Asmodeus. Don't let them talk, and they're still a cultist of Asmodeus, but one we don't know about."

To Tetula:

"I don't think people have the right to try to convince everyone else to be Asmodean even if it doesn't work!"

To Xavier: 

"—I might have misunderstood what a 'right' is? I thought a 'right' was— you're allowed to do it and can't be punished for it. If someone is a cultist of Asmodeus but no one is allowed to do anything about it, then knowing doesn't help much."

"You can't be punished for telling people to worship Asmodeus! You can be punished for owning a holy symbol of Asmodeus and a shrine to Asmodeus and a pentagram of Asmodeus drawn in cat's blood, and you can be followed by spies until you lead them to the important members of the Cult of Asmodeus, who I assure you have all those things."

Jilia nods to Narcis. "Or religious rank, of course, my mistake. On speech, my understanding of the principle is that, one, Delegate Tetula's objection is wise, and, two, that policing pure speech tends to allow the government to find excuses to punish anyone who disagrees with them by declaring things they say to be prohibited. Say, to declare a lawyer's normal business to be proselytization for Mephistopheles. And then, as a practical matter, that the Archduke's point is also correct, and so the costs are smaller than we might expect. I certainly agree that if we make an exception, here, proselytization for forbidden gods is the obvious one."

It doesn't seem hard to tell the difference between normal people saying normal things and someone advocating for Mephistopheles????

He'll nod along with the entire speech. "Oh yes. If there's any exception, it's that exception. But the need isn't quite so great as it looks."

"I think guilds want their mark protected too. Maybe just let every group pick an insignia?"

"How about limits to speech to a crowd but no limits in private? We don't want people preaching for Asmodeus on the street, but people just talking at home shouldn't have to worry about saying the wrong thing and getting reported."

Oh good, both nobles in favor.

"I think it's most important that we can hear and read what others have said, even when the things they said are imperfect or wrong. Taking away our ability to know and understand what things are like in other places was among the worst weapons of Asmodeus. We can't do better than we are if we aren't allowed to know what else exists."

Jilia nods to Korva but holds up a hand to prevent more responses.

"Are we agreed that some form of a right to speak freely is warranted, and disagree only about which precise restrictions should be applied? If so, I'd like to table the specifics for the moment and take more suggestions."

She pauses for a beat.

"To 'table' in this context means to set aside temporarily with the promise of returning to it. For those not familiar with the kind of procedures committees use, which I realize is most of you."

Enric appreciates the explanation, though he doesn't entirely trust that they'll actually take it off the table. Sometimes people say 'we can talk about that later' and then it never happens. 

He agrees though. There's things people shouldn't be saying, but that doesn't mean the crown and nobles should be in every house and tavern listening for them.

"I have some more suggestions.

"People should have the right to travel freely without needing a travel pass. People should have the right to worship any god not of the lower planes. People should have the right to justice. People should have the right to their own person, free from being defiled by force. People should have the right to defend themself against assaults on their person, including when a battered woman or a victim of rape kills their assaulter, even if that happens later. If an ordinary person accuses a noble or a priest of a crime, or vice versa, the ordinary person should have the right to have the trial judged by the priest of a legal god of their choice, and they should be allowed to bring them to trial even if it's the count or something." Or just kill them, but she knows she's not getting that through committee. "Crimes should be punished more seriously if it's done by a noble or a priest— right now it's less, even if you manage to bring them to trial at all, and I think that's backwards. Farmers should have the right to own the land they work. Women should have the right to divorce their husbands at their own will. Husbands should have the right to divorce their wives if their wife isn't pregnant and doesn't have children, or if their wife gives consent, or if a priest of a legal god hears both their complaints and says he should be allowed to. Either way the wife should get to keep her dowry, obviously. —I wrote all that down before I came, if anyone didn't catch everything." Some of the wording is stolen from pamphlets that she thought had good ideas.