BREAKING NEWS:

WASHINGTON — In a stunning break with First Amendment policy on Capitol Hill, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Republicans also denied the entrance of a credentialed ABC News news team that was attempting to film the event.

Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Gasland” was taken into custody by Capitol Hill police this morning, along with his crew, after Republicans objected to their presence, according to Democratic sources present at the hearing. The meeting of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment had been taking place in room 2318 of the Rayburn building. Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, is currently seeking to secure a procedural maneuver that would allow the detained film crew to re-enter the hearing, which is open to the public. Miller’s motion is not expected to succeed.

Approximately 16 officers entered the hearing room and handcuffed Fox amid audible discussions of “disorderly conduct” charges, according to Democratic sources present at the arrest.

“Gasland” received strong critical acclaim and takes a critical eye toward the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a process in which several tons of highly pressurized water and chemicals are injected into the ground, allowing valuable natural gas to escape. The practice is decried by ecological experts for destroying ecosystems and polluting groundwater. The energy industry keeps the actual content of fracking chemicals secret.

Fox had hoped to film Wednesday’s hearing for a follow-up to “Gasland.” A colleague of Fox’s at his production company was unable to comment on the morning’s events, but HuffPost expects a statement soon and will update this story accordingly.

Fox did not have formal Capitol Hill credentials, but such formalities are rarely enforced against high-profile journalists. Temporary passes are easy to obtain, and if Republicans had objected on procedural grounds, they could have simply sent the the crew to the front desk, rather than ordering police to arrest journalists. The right to a free press is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Documentary crews are almost never denied access to public meetings of elected government officials.

A separate ABC News crew, which did have official Capitol Hill credentials, was also denied access to the public hearing.

UPDATE: 12:09 p.m. – Capitol Police public information officer Seargant Kimberly Schneider provided the following statement to HuffPost on the morning’s events:

“At approximately 10:30 a.m. today, United States Capitol Police arrested Joshua Fox of Milanville, Pa. in room 2318 of the Rayburn House office building. He is charged with unlawful entry, and he is currently being processed at United States Capitol Police headquarters.”

This is a developing story. Check back with HuffPost for more.

Until he does, questions will remain about his ability to be the standard-bearer for a party that has roiled with populist rage for much of the past three years.

According to exit poll data, Romney lost “very conservative voters” — who made up 33 percent of the Florida voters — to Gingrich, 43 percent to 29 percent. While Romney won 51 percent to 32 percent among “somewhat conservative” voters, he lost evangelical voters to Gingrich, albeit by a small margin, 39 percent to 36 percent.

And 41 percent of those polled said Romney isn’t conservative enough.

This is why Gingrich has an opening to keep going, and why Santorum is hanging on in case the former House speaker blows himself up again.

But Gingrich, who came in second in Florida and has been able to raise more money than Santorum, now has a few weeks to regroup and see if he can find a consistent message that will resonate with the base that vaulted him to first place in South Carolina.

Given the proportional delegate rules, roughly 95 percent of delegates are still to be allocated in upcoming races — which could mean, as Gingrich has vowed, a long spring.

4. Hispanic voters gave Romney a boost

Despite Gingrich’s potential appeal among Florida’s Hispanic immigrants, it was Romney who won more than half of the crucial voting bloc’s support.

Romney’s strong showing came despite a somewhat cool initial reception at the Hispanic Leadership Network in Florida last week and his language against “amnesty” during the Iowa caucuses.

Florida’s Hispanic community, dominated by Cubans and Puerto Ricans, tends to vote on specific issues that don’t always resonate widely outside Florida. But the vote tally is one that Romney’s camp will take heart from, given the role that Hispanic voters will play as a swing bloc in a general election.

5. There is no ‘new normal’ for campaigns

Gingrich has focused on running a nontraditional campaign, as he has put it, but certain time-honored rules still apply.

Which rules? Negative campaigning works. Ground games are important. And so is money.

Despite some public boasting by Team Romney about how it beat back Gingrich after South Carolina, the reality is that the tactics the campaign employed weren’t particularly novel — it aired a barrage of negative ads, trotted out surrogates to make its case and rattle Gingrich, and looked up opposition research on its rival.

All of those things require organization, and Romney is the only candidate who has one besides Paul, whose aims and campaign style are different. It’s also why Romney was able to bank a huge early vote lead in Florida, where the turnout in this primary declined by more than 200,000 votes from last time.