CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. — Washington County supervisors are set to follow the lead of other neighboring counties and introduce stricter limits governing protests at funerals.

The move follows a Supreme Court case in March which determined that funeral protests were first amendment protected speech, but that reasonable limits could be imposed to protect the families of the deceased.

In that Supreme Court case, the father of a Marine killed in Iraq sued members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church after the group picketed his son’s funeral.

The Washington County law, if adopted, would keep demonstrators 750 feet away from a cemetery, mortuary, or church one hour prior to, during, and following the conclusion of a funeral. The law is modeled after one that the New York State Association of Counties drafted and distributed shortly after the Supreme Court case.

State law currently restricts unreasonable noise or disturbances within 100 feet of funerals and burials.

Washington County board Chairman John Rymph said that funeral protests had not been a local issue but that the county was seeking to be proactive.

“Nobody is trying to stop people from protesting,” Rymph said, “but to do it in a normal and peaceful way. … In other areas these people gather and get confrontational.”

A public hearing on the law is scheduled for June 17. Supervisors in Saratoga County will be holding a public hearing on a similar law two days prior.
Warren and Rensselaer county officials have already implemented stricter restrictions on funeral protests. Albany County legislators are also in the process of adopting their own law.

In April, Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen Jimino submitted a funeral protest law to the county legislature. On May 10, the legislature approved the law. A letter was read at that meeting in support for the law, from the mother of a member of the U.S. Army killed last year in Afghanistan.

The Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, has protested military funerals under the guise that the deaths are actually retribution for the nation’s tolerance for homosexuality.

The church has previously threatened to protest at funerals in the Capital Region, but has not done so to date. In 2009, however, members of the church picketed outside Albany High School, condemning homosexuality.

And in 2005, members of the church picketed the Topeka funeral of Army Sgt. Dominic Sacco of Albany. Sacco’s family lived in Kansas at the time.

In Congress, the Sanctity of Eternal Rest for Veterans Act of 2011 would increase restrictions on military funeral protests from one hour to two hours before and after and increase the restricted distance from funerals from 150 to 300 feet. It would also include a 500 feet restriction around funeral routes and surviving members of the deceased’s immediate family.

The federal bill was introduced by Alaskan Sen. Olympia Snowe. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand co-sponsored. That bill is currently in committee.

Source: benningtonbanner.com