00                  SENATE CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 234(STA)                                                                 
01 "An Act relating to picketing 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. The legislature also finds                         
09 that family members attending a funeral service are a captive audience, and that it is very                             
10 difficult for grieving family members to avoid picketing within 150 feet of the boundary of a                           
11 cemetery, mortuary, church, or other facility where a funeral is being held up to an hour                               
12 before the beginning of a funeral and until an hour after the conclusion of a funeral.                                  
13       (b)  The legislature also recognizes that individuals have a constitutional right to free                         
14 speech, and that, in the context of funeral ceremonies, the competing interests of picketers and                        
15 grieving family members must be balanced. Therefore, the legislature finds and intends that                             

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

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