(The Center Square) – Two bills seeking to impose criminal penalties for disrupting a church service advanced in the Louisiana Legislature on Tuesday.
The bills, filed in response to a high-profile protest that interrupted services at a Minnesota church in January, cleared a Senate committee without objection from lawmakers. The measures were opposed by the Americans for Civil Liberties Union and the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, who worried they would not “pass constitutional muster.”
Supporters of the bill offered by Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, said it aligns with existing legal standards. The measure gives specifics on what would be defined as “obstruction of the freedom of worship” and names actions that would warrant criminal charges, such as “using force, the threat of force, physical obstruction, or attempted intentional injury.”
“This bill is very specific in making certain that we are protecting people’s individual and constitutional rights,” Edmonds told the Senate Judiciary Committee. He addressed assertions from opponents who called the bill “preemptive,” saying “we want to be ahead of the curve instead of behind.”
A separate bill authored by Sen. William Wheat Jr., a Republican from Ponchatoula, will be reworked to include more clarity, Wheat said.
“We protect funerals, schools and courthouses, and our churches need to be held, in my opinion, even above that,” Wheat said.
Gene Mills, president of the conservative nonprofit Louisiana Family Forum, backed Edmonds’ bill and said it would give local law enforcement clearer authority to intervene in cases of church disruptions without waiting for federal authorities.
“Senator Edmonds’ is the strongest,” Mills said, urging other bill authors to join that proposal.
Sarah Whittington, advocacy director at the ACLU of Louisiana, said Edmonds’ bill contains overly broad language in some sections and warned that it could potentially target innocent conduct, offering examples such as loud cheering from a soccer game that runs into overtime on church grounds.
