00                            HOUSE BILL NO. 234                                                                          
01 "An Act relating to picketing or protests at a funeral."                                                                
02 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                                
03    * Section 1. The uncodified law of the State of Alaska is amended by adding a new section                          
04 to read:                                                                                                                
05       FINDINGS AND LEGISLATIVE INTENT. (a) The legislature finds that families                                          
06 have a legitimate and legally cognizable interest in organizing and attending funerals for                              
07 deceased relatives, and that the rights of families to mourn the deaths of relatives peacefully                         
08 and privately are violated when funerals are targeted for picketing or other protest activities.                        
09 The legislature also finds that family members attending a funeral service are a captive                                
10 audience, and that it is very difficult for grieving family members to avoid picketing and                              
11 protest activities within 150 feet of the boundary of a cemetery, mortuary, church, or other                            
12 facility where a funeral is being held up to an hour before the beginning of a funeral and until                        
13 an hour after the conclusion of a funeral.                                                                              
14       (b)  The legislature also recognizes that individuals have a constitutional right to free                         
15 speech, and that, in the context of funeral ceremonies, the competing interests of picketers or                         

01 protesters and grieving family members must be balanced. Therefore, the legislature finds and                           
02 intends that the purpose of AS 11.61.110(a)(8), as enacted by sec. 2 of this Act, is to protect                         
03 the privacy of grieving families and to preserve the peaceful character of a cemetery,                                  
04 mortuary, church, or other facility designated as the scheduled location for the funeral of a                           
05 deceased family member, while still providing picketers and protesters the opportunity to                               
06 communicate their message at a time and place that minimizes interference with the rights of                            
07 grieving family members of the deceased.                                                                                
08    * Sec. 2. AS 11.61.110(a) is amended to read:                                                                      
09            (a)  A person commits the crime of disorderly conduct if,                                                    
10                 (1)  with intent to disturb the peace and privacy of another not                                        
11       physically on the same premises or with reckless disregard that the conduct is having                             
12       that effect after being informed that it is having that effect, the person makes                                  
13       unreasonably loud noise;                                                                                          
14                 (2)  in a public place or in a private place of another without consent,                                
15       and with intent to disturb the peace and privacy of another or with reckless disregard                            
16       that the conduct is having that effect after being informed that it is having that effect,                        
17       the person makes unreasonably loud noise;                                                                         
18                 (3)  in a public place, when a crime has occurred, the person refuses to                                
19       comply with a lawful order of a peace officer to disperse;                                                        
20                 (4)  in a private place, the person refuses to comply with an order of a                                
21       peace officer to leave premises in which the person has neither a right of possession                             
22       nor the express invitation to remain of a person having a right of possession;                                    
23                 (5)  in a public or private place, the person challenges another to fight                               
24       or engages in fighting other than in self-defense;                                                                
25                 (6)  the person recklessly creates a hazardous condition for others by an                               
26       act which has no legal justification or excuse; [OR]                                                              
27                 (7)  the offender intentionally exposes the offender's buttock or anus to                               
28       another with reckless disregard for the offensive or insulting effect the act may have                            
29       on that person; or                                                                                            
30                 (8)  the person knowingly engages in picketing with reckless                                        
31       disregard that the picketing occurs                                                                           

01                      (A)  within 150 feet of the boundary of a cemetery,                                            
02            mortuary, church, or other facility; and                                                                 
03                      (B)  while a funeral is occurring at the cemetery, mortuary,                                   
04            church, or other facility or during the 60-minute period                                                 
05                           (i)  before the start of the funeral; or                                                  
06                           (ii)  after the conclusion of the funeral.                                                
07    * Sec. 3. AS 11.61.110(b) is amended to read:                                                                      
08            (b)  In [AS USED IN] this section,                                                                       
09                 (1)  "funeral" means a ceremony or memorial service held in                                         
10       connection with the burial or cremation of a deceased person, but does not                                    
11       include a funeral procession on a public street or highway;                                                   
12                 (2)  "noise" is "unreasonably loud" if, considering the nature and                                  
13       purpose of the defendant's conduct and the circumstances known to the defendant,                                  
14       including the nature of the location and the time of day or night, the conduct involves                           
15       a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would follow                              
16       in the same situation; "noise" [. "NOISE"] does not include speech that is                                    
17       constitutionally protected;                                                                                   
18                 (3)  "picketing" means protest activities, engaged in by a person,                                  
19       that disrupt or are undertaken to disturb a funeral.