NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are proposing legislation that could affect Occupy Nashville protesters.

The measure says a person cannot live on publicly owned property that isn't designated or permitted as residential.

Protesters have occupied the plaza across the street from the state Capitol since early October. State troopers raided the encampment in late October and made 55 arrests, but the state has had to back down.

Gov. Bill Haslam ordered the charges dropped when Nashville courts refused to jail the protesters, and the state isn't fighting a federal court order that found the raids had violated the First Amendment rights of the protesters.

Under the legislation, violators would be charged and "subject to temporary or permanent removal from the property by the appropriate law enforcement agency."