Funeral protests barred

OLYMPIA – Rushing a new law into place in time for today’s threatened protests at military memorial services in Yakima and Spokane, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday signed “the Washington Rest in Peace Act.”

The law, which a handful of lawmakers opposed due to freedom-of-speech concerns, bans “tumultuous conduct” and other disruptions within 500 feet of funerals.

“It’s a bill, candidly, that I wish I did not have to sign,” Gregoire said Friday, flanked by lawmakers and veterans, including her husband, Vietnam combat veteran Mike Gregoire. At his request, she said, the bill was the first one of 2007 she signed into law.

The governor plans to attend the funeral today of Army Maj. Alan Ricardo Johnson in Yakima. “First Mike” Gregoire will attend two military funerals today, including a memorial service at Ferris High School for Marine Cpl. Darrel James Morris.

The governor had planned to sign the bill next week but rushed it out Friday so local police and deputies could enforce the law this weekend if necessary. The bill includes an unusual clause making it take effect as soon as the governor signed it.

“It’s law right this moment,” said Sen. Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, who had pushed unsuccessfully for an identical bill last year. “It’s about time.”

The law, authored by Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, is aimed at the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group that draws publicity for its anti-gay and anti-lesbian cause by picketing high-profile funerals with signs applauding troop deaths. The group has threatened on its Web site to picket both the Yakima and Spokane funerals today. Gregoire said Friday that her office has indications that the group may already be in the Yakima area, and a copy of the bill has been sent to police there.

“I want law enforcement to enforce the law,” Gregoire said.

“We have still protected the constitutional rights of free speech and assembly – however, at a distance,” said Roach.

Under the new law, it is a misdemeanor to fight, engage in tumultuous conduct or make unreasonable noise within 500 feet of a funeral, burial or memorial service. The offender must, however, know that his or her actions adversely affect the event.

At least 28 other states, starting with Kansas, have passed similar laws aimed at stopping the Westboro Baptist Church’s pickets.

Gregoire said that the Westboro Baptist Church has picketed 40 military funerals throughout the Pacific Northwest in recent years. The group frequently announces that it will be at a funeral, then doesn’t show up.

“I just hope they frankly stay out of Washington state,” said the governor. “They are not welcome here.”

Even if the group doesn’t show, she said, the threats still cause chaos for families, local police and counter-demonstrators.

On its Web site, the group posts an open letter to legislatures passing such laws, which it says are unconstitutional.

“… You are creating law which is the bastard offspring of passion, prejudice, and putrid pandering to the rabble,” the group writes. “You are doing this because you have no honor and you hate God.”

It has also posted on its Web site copies of a $47,000 check from the city of Topeka and a $170,000 check from the state of Kansas. The payment, the group says, was for its attorneys’ fees when it successfully challenged similar laws there.