Missouri House votes to restrict funeral protests

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The House passed a bill Thursday making it a crime for protesters at funerals to get any closer than a football field's length away.

Two St. Joseph lawmakers, Rep. Martin Rucker and Sen. Charlie Shields, have sponsored bills that would limit funeral protests after members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church protested last August outside the St. Joseph funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq.

The church's members have protested in several other states and say they believe the soldiers are dying in Iraq as divine punishment because the U.S. harbors homosexuals.

Several other states have proposed or discussed legislation limiting protests outside funerals. Representatives from the church have said they would sue if Missouri tries to limit their ability to protest.

Despite being a Democrat in a solidly Republican House, Rucker was tapped to carry the funeral protest bill during House floor debate Thursday.

Rucker said what should have been an honor was soured by the need for the bill.

"It's a travesty that we must regulate decency and integrity," he said.

Last month, the Senate voted to bar protests near a funeral an hour before and after a service. There was little debate, and no one voted against the bill.

The House's version keeps the same time requirements laid out by the Senate but specifies that protests must be 300 feet away. A conference committee of lawmakers from both bodies will need to meet to work out the differences.

Rucker said he believed specifying a specific distance "cut more mustard because we have put it in a window of time frame and distance."

Both bills would make protesting illegally at a funeral a misdemeanor with fines and possible jail time that would increase for repeat offenders.

Two House Democrats voted against the bill. Rep. Tom Villa, of St. Louis, said while the protests are "twisted," he doubts a ban would deter people with such poor taste. Villa also said the measure is on the borderline of unconstitutionally restricting the right to peacefully assemble and protest.

"I viewed it as a knee-jerk reaction to some demonstrations that have transpired, and the fact of the matter is, is when we overreact -- which I think this bill is -- we just give them more publicity than they deserve," Villa said.

The House has several military veterans, including Speaker Rod Jetton and Rep. Jim Avery, who returned from Iraq during the middle of the session last year.

Avery, R-Crestwood, said no one in his group was killed, but there were causalities among the group that was deployed to relieve him.