Funeral protest bill passes from Senate to governor

DES MOINES — Iowa senators sent Gov. Terry Branstad a bill Tuesday designed to balance Iowans' constitutional rights at funerals or memorial services.

The bill expands the level of privacy granted under the Fourth Amendment to reasonably grieve for loved ones, soldiers or civilians, backers say.

The bill, which won Iowa Senate support by a 50-0 margin, would establish a 1,000-foot buffer between funerals and protesters for one hour before and after the funeral while balancing free speech rights of participants and onlookers.

The bill is a response to demonstrations by Westboro Baptist Church, whose members have shown up at military funerals to deliver its message that God will turn his back on a nation that sanctions abortion, same-sex marriage, and other abominations. The death of soldiers, according to Westboro, is God's punishment for America abandoning him.

'Families and friends who are grieving the loss of a loved one should not have to be subject to a barrage of hateful yelling and signs while they're honoring and remembering the person they have lost,' said Sen. Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, the bill's floor manager.

The bill headed to the governor's desk for his expected signature is based on legislation that has been upheld by supreme courts in Nebraska, Missouri, and Minnesota, supporters say.

Actions such as shouting homophobic slurs and desecrating the U.S. flag at military funerals are 'reprehensible,' said Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, noting that he finds individuals who engage in such actions to be 'despicable.' But he told his Senate colleagues 'it's exactly for those reasons that their First Amendment rights of expression need to be zealously defended. The First Amendment isn't about protecting popular speech.'

At the same time, he noted, it is not just one group whose constitutional rights are at issue, noting that people who participate in a funeral or a memorial service are exercising their freedom of expression, and in many cases their religious freedom, while celebrating a life or mourning a loss.

But, he added, the right to free speech 'does not include the right to shout down someone else's speech. I think that this bill provides appropriate separation so that each may be able to express their views under our Constitution.'