Saint Augustine, FL
My opinion is that 'items' should not be allowed to be pulled out during gameplay. In between games while you're waiting, sure, but not during play.
Allowing devices and pieces of paper to be pulled out and placed on the glass during gameplay is a slippery slope which will eventually lead to so much use, distraction, and expanding on such crutches that it'll get out of control and bog tournies down, and make it so that you'll have to play with your ipad on the game to have the same advantages of ruleset knowledge. Might as well ban them now.
Let's just be honest. Legal or illegal, it's LAME!
