Rep. Bobby Rush has donned a hoodie during a speech on the House floor deploring the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, receiving a reprimand before being removed for violating rules on wearing hats in the House chamber.
The Illinois Democrat spoke out against racial profiling and, as he removed his suit coat and pulled the hood on the sweatshirt he was wearing underneath over his head, said that "just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum."
Rush, who also pullued on sunglasses, was interrupted by the presiding officer, Mississippi Republican Gregg Harper, who reminded him that the wearing of hats was not allowed and "members need to remove their hoods or leave the floor."
"The member will suspend," said Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., the speaker pro tempore presiding over the morning session. "The member is no longer recognized. The chair will ask the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the rules on decorum."
Rush shouted Bible passages over the sound of the gavel as the speaker interrupted him, but he was eventually pulled from the House floor.
"May God bless Trayvon Martin's soul, his family and -- [inaudible]" Rush said as he was removed from the House floor this morning still wearing a hoodie.
Rush's "donning of the hood" violated clause five of House Rule 17 against wearing hats on the House floor.
On Tuesday the 17-year-old Martin's parents spoke on Capitol Hill at a Democratic-sponsored panel on racial profiling.
See video below.
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