Prepare yourself for a shock, Seth. We are in agreement again. Seth at CCK alerts us to this bit of news, from CNN:
Demonstrators would be barred from disrupting military funerals at national cemeteries under legislation approved by Congress and sent to the White House.
The measure, passed by voice vote in the House Wednesday hours after the Senate passed an amended version, specifically targets a Kansas church group that has staged protests at military funerals around the country, claiming that the deaths were a sign of God's anger at U.S. tolerance of homosexuals.
The act "will protect the sanctity of all 122 of our national cemeteries as shrines to their gallant dead," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, said prior to the Senate vote.
"It's a sad but necessary measure to protect what should be recognized by all reasonable people as a solemn, private and deeply sacred occasion," he said.
Under the Senate bill, approved without objection by the House with no recorded vote, the "Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act" would bar protests within 300 feet of the entrance of a cemetery and within 150 feet of a road into the cemetery from 60 minutes before to 60 minutes after a funeral. Those violating the act would face up to a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
I am not altogether sure that national legislation was necessary on this point, as the bill clearly targets a very small gaggle of noxious numbskulls. But its a perfectly reasonable application of the "public forum" doctrine of constitutional law. Free speech is limited by context: a public park where demonstrations of any kind are allowed is clearly a public forum; funerals are not.
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