When we told you about David Klavitter’s struggles against a noisy group of demonstrators on H Street NE a few weeks back, most everyone seemed to agree that while free speech is an important principle, it’s not one that everyone has to exercise using a loud amplifier. But today the D.C. Council seemed to disagree.

Today the Council voted 7-5 to table legislation that would have placed limits on how loud protests could get. The legislation, known as the “Noise Control Protection Amendment Act of 2008,” would have set 70 dB as the point at which a protest could be classified as a disturbance, following the standard set by cities such as Miami and Los Angeles. It was inspired by Klavitter’s long-running complaints about a group of Black Hebrew Israelites near his H Street NE home that regularly used amplification to make their points known, much to the chagrin of local residents.

While a number of neighborhood associations came out in favor of the bill, some organizations, including a number of labor unions and the ACLU, expressed concern that the measure would allow the city to crack down on other demonstrations.