INDIANAPOLIS – A protest against the governor’s stay at home order is planned for 1:30 p.m. Friday on the south lawn of the state house. It’s being organized by the same group that led a protest April 18, a group that believes the governor’s executive orders are unconstitutional.

“The governor has kept the economy shut down, so we need to send a message to him that we need to open up the economy and let people get back to work, and everybody’s essential,” said Bob Hall, one of the organizers.

Hall said he believes the orders violate the right to assemble and freedom of speech.

“If you have a quarantine, you quarantine sick people. When you quarantine healthy people, that’s martial law,” he said. “This is martial law what’s going on. It’s tyranny. It’s just not freedom.”

Hall said he expects around 200 people will show up, about half the number of the previous protest. The Friday protest is during a work day, while the last protest was on a Saturday. But, Hall said the timing is not coincidental. Gov. Holcomb delivers his regular 2:30 p.m. news conference, on the day the stay at home order is supposed to expire or be extended.

“He will start talking at 2:30. So, I expect the crowd to be pretty strong by 2:30. And, we haope that we make enough noise that he can hear it inside the state house,” he said.

When asked if protesters would be wearing masks, Hall said it’s a personal choice.

“We had a lot of people that wore masks the last time. But, there’s experts that say that wearing masks is not helping to stop the coronavirus. There’s a concept called herd immunity. If people are exposed to the virus, many of them don’t have any symptoms and some have mild symptoms. Less than one percent have serious illnesses.”

Hall said he’s not concerned for himself. Pictures and video of the last protest showed people standing close to one another.

“I’m 70 years old and I’m not afraid. I have a good immunity system and I don’t expect to have any problems.”