Missouri Law Needs Tweaking Before Passing Constitutional Muster

As I have previously discussed, Missouri city can ban a funeral protest.However, Missouri still has to tweak the current statute to pass constitutionalmuster. Recently, the 8th Circuit ruled that the word “procession” could betaken out to make the statute pass constitutional muster. The court reasonedthat the remaining provisions are narrowly tailored and are appropriate restrictions.

The statue was first adopted in 2005,whenBaptist church members were picketing at the funeral of a U.S. soldier. Thechurch members believe that God kills soldiers because of the United States’s growing acceptance of homosexuality. Church members were able to get aninjunction and continued to protest. In 2010, the law was declaredunconstitutional by the district court. In 2012, the court held an en banchearing and reversed the decision. The law bans protest within 300 feet of aburial one-hour prior and after the funeral. However, the law does not have abuffer zone and before the 8th Circuit court decision the courts incorporated the procession in the ban.

See Joe Harris, Missouri Has Work To Do On Funeral Protest Law, Courthouse News Service, May 3, 2013.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.