new orleans — At least four states adopted laws this year making it a crime to disrupt worship services, in response to a High-profile protest inside a Minnesota church Who paid Anger From religious leaders.
Republican lawmakers sponsoring most of the legislation say those who gather in holy places deserve protection beyond what current trespassing laws provide. They also say that these new laws will prevent the escalation of clashes between worshipers and protesters Churches, Mosques and Jewish synagogues They remain on edge due to recent mass shootings and violence Targeting religious groups.
“People should go to church so they can sit in peace and worship as they please, without having to worry about people coming in and harassing them,” said Idaho Republican Sen. Mark Harris, who co-sponsored legislation that would criminalize protests inside places of worship. “I think what happened in Minnesota was a shock to some of us, that churches would be used as a place to rebuke people.”
Critics in both parties have warned that the laws violate free speech rights.
Here’s a look at the situation.
The bills were signed into law in Republican-controlled states Idaho, Louisiana and Oklahoma. In Kansas, the bill becomes law without the signature of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
Similar bills have been introduced this year in legislative sessions in at least seven other states and in Congress. Nassau County in New York passed a similar measure this year. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a law making it a federal crime to intentionally harm, interfere with, or intimidate someone entering a place of worship or place of worship. Reproductive health facility.
Details vary in the bills, but they all make interference in religious gatherings a crime.
Anti-trespassing laws already apply to disturbances on the grounds of churches or other private property. But lawmakers say the new laws will toughen penalties and prevent other protest activities such as placing signs near places of worship.
Penalties can be harsher for trespassing. In some states, people can face up to a year in prison and fines of up to $10,000 for a first offense. The laws also give states a way to prosecute cases if local authorities refuse to do so.
Thirty-nine people Among them are two journalistsThey were charged in February for their roles in a protest during a St. Paul church service in Minnesota. Protesters learned that one of the church’s pastors was also an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was supervising the operation Operation Minnesota Intensive.
The US Department of Justice accused the demonstrators of conspiring against religious freedom and interfering with the right to religious freedom. Protesters and journalists have pleaded not guilty and the cases are still pending in federal court.
Louisiana Republican state Rep. Gabe Vermont said he was inspired to introduce legislation that would allow for the forcible removal of protesters from churches and other places of worship after seeing videos showing the frightening expressions of children in a Minnesota church.
“The first thought that came to my mind was these poor kids,” Verment said. “You certainly have a right to protest, but just as you don’t have a right to enter someone’s home and act that way, you don’t have a right to enter private church property to do that.”
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Todd Guliharry wrote his bill after anti-abortion protesters disrupted his church service last year. His law prohibits closing highways within one mile of a service or approaching someone to hand them a leaflet within 100 feet of a place of worship.
His fellow Republican, Senator Kendall Sachere, described the law as extremist and said she feared the precedent it would set.
The Nassau County law already faces a court challenge from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which says there is no history of residents facing intimidation, harassment or violence outside places of worship — and that the law deprives people of their constitutionally protected rights to expression in public.
If the laws are challenged in courts, governments will have to show they are needed, said Kevin Goldberg, vice president of the Freedom Forum, which advocates for First Amendment rights. “You can’t guess, you can’t speculate,” he said. “There has to be some evidence that there is an actual threat occurring, that there is a problem there, and that you can reasonably predict that there will be a problem.”
In Louisiana, Democrats raised concerns about mandatory prison sentences for disrupting services and warned that the laws were too arbitrary, suggesting they could be enforced against a congregant for singing out of turn while the pastor is preaching.
“If I was struck by the Spirit and started singing in the middle of his sermon, and his sermon was disrupted in such a way that he would say, ‘Hey, sit down,’ I mean that would financially disrupt his ministry, and now I would go to jail for 30 days,” Rep. Edmund Jordan said during a Louisiana Legislature hearing in March.
Supporters of the law said police officers and judges would have discretion over how to enforce the law.
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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.