The guidelines, released Friday, specify where protests can take place, how signs are to be posted and when leaflets can be handed out.

"I hope it is an improvement," said Alan Bachman, legal adviser to the Capitol Preservation Board, which approved the rules in July. "Public officials and board members wanted to make sure Capitol Hill was available for free speech activities. That's one of the critical purposes of the Hill."

Among the changes to the rules: There will be no charge for protest permits. Leafleting will be allowed in specific protest areas. And new solicitation rules will distinguish between free speech, lobbying and commercial activity on Capitol Hill.

During the 2006 Legislature, lawmakers told highway patrol troopers to stop the Utah Animal Rights Coalition, the Anti-Hunger Committee and the Disabled Rights Action Committee from passing out leaflets.

Civil rights attorney Brian Barnard sued on behalf of the groups. Both cases were decided in favor of the protesters. And Barnard was awarded $16,000 in attorney's fees.

The new rules define leafleting as the "unsolicited distribution of leaflets, handbills, pamphlets, flyers or any other written materials to pedestrians, passersby or on vehicles." Leafleting will be allowed in designated free speech areas - including the Capitol Plaza, Rotunda, East and West Building lobbies and the stairs and terraces of the Capitol itself - but not in other parts of the Capitol complex.

In a letter to Capitol Preservation Director David Hart, Anti-Hunger Action Committee Director Bill Tibbitts said the draft rules still are too restrictive. Several lawmakers complained advocates were disruptive as they lobbied for funding Medicaid dental and vision care for low-income Utahns. Many held pictures of of rotting teeth and one leaflet targeted specific lawmakers for criticism. Tibbitts worries the new rules will not protect legitimate protest and leafleting.

"Placing unnecessary restrictions on literature distribution and holding small photographs violates the First Amendment and will discourage low income people from participating in the political process," Tibbitts wrote.

Barnard, who declined to advise state attorneys drafting the rules, said the regulations still could be unconstitutional. Although the rules do not explicitly treat protesters and lobbyists differently, Barnard worries Capitol Hill law enforcement will.

"Can you imagine a Utah Highway Patrol trooper going up to a lobbyist in a $2,500 suit while he is talking to the speaker of the House in the cafeteria and the trooper preventing the white shoe influence peddler from handing a position paper to the speaker?" he asked. "Can you picture the same trooper going up to John Q. Public in the cafeteria and stopping that common citizen?"

"The practice will be that the rule is enforced against protesters and common folk and the rule will not be enforced against lobbyists," he added.

Bachman insists that is not the effect of the new rules.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said he would oppose unequal treatment for lobbyists.

"Why should we be rewarding a select group of people with the ability to do something in the democratic process that others are not entitled to?" he said in an interview two weeks ago.

The rules will be posted for public comment for 30 days. Then, they will be referred back to the Capitol Preservation Board for possible changes.