HOUSE BILL 186

48th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2007

INTRODUCED BY

Thomas E. Swisstack

AN ACT

RELATING TO FUNERALS; LIMITING DEMONSTRATIONS; PROVIDING FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF; PROVIDING PENALTIES; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. SHORT TITLE.--This act may be cited as the "Demonstrations at Funerals and Memorial Services Act".

     Section 2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Demonstrations at Funerals and Memorial Services Act:

          A. "funeral" means the ceremonies, rituals, processions and memorial services held at a funeral site in connection with the viewing, burial, cremation or memorial of or wake for a deceased person;

          B. "funeral site" means a church, synagogue, mosque, funeral home, mortuary, cemetery, grave site, mausoleum or other place at which a funeral is being conducted or is scheduled to be conducted within the next sixty minutes or has been conducted within the last sixty minutes; and

          C. "targeted residential picketing" includes the following acts:

                (1) marching, standing or patrolling by one or more persons directed solely at a particular residential building in a manner that adversely affects the safety, security or privacy of an occupant of the building; or

                (2) marching, standing or patrolling by one or more persons that prevents an occupant of a residential building from gaining access to or exiting from the property on which the residential building is located.

     Section 3. PROHIBITED ACTS.--A person shall not, with knowledge of the existence of a funeral or funeral site:

          A. engage in any loud singing, playing of music, chanting, whistling, yelling or noisemaking with or without noise amplification, including bullhorns, auto horns and microphones within five hundred feet of any ingress or egress of that funeral site, when the volume of such singing, music, chanting, whistling, yelling or noisemaking is likely to be audible at and disturbing to the peace or good order at that funeral site;

          B. direct abusive epithets or make any threatening gestures that the person knows or reasonably should know is likely to provoke a violent reaction by another person;

          C. display within five hundred feet of any ingress or egress of that funeral site any visual images that convey fighting words or actual or veiled threats against another person;

          D. knowingly obstruct, hinder, impede or block another person's access to or egress from that funeral site or a facility containing that funeral site, except that the owner or occupant of property may take lawful actions to exclude others from that property;

          E. knowingly obstruct, hinder, impede or block the progress of a vehicle participating in a procession to or from a funeral site; or

          F. knowingly engage in targeted residential picketing at the home or domicile of any surviving member of the deceased person's family or household on the date of the funeral.

     Section 4. PENALTIES.--Any person who violates Section 3 of the Demonstrations at Funerals and Memorial Services Act is:

          A. for the first offense, guilty of a petty misdemeanor and shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978;

          B. for the second offense, guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978; and

          C. for the third and subsequent offenses, guilty of a fourth degree felony and shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978.

     Section 5. INJUNCTIVE RELIEF.--In addition to the criminal penalties provided in Section 4 of the Demonstrations at Funerals and Memorial Services Act, the court may enjoin conduct prohibited in Section 3 of that act if there is credible evidence that a person is likely to violate Section 3 of the Demonstrations at Funerals and Memorial Services Act. Any surviving member of the deceased person's immediate family who is threatened with loss or injury by reason of a violation described in Section 3 of the Demonstrations at Funerals and Memorial Services Act is entitled to sue for and have injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction against any damage, threatened loss or injury by reason of a violation of this act.

     Section 6. SEVERABILITY.--If any part or application of this act is held invalid, the remainder or its application to other situations or persons shall not be affected.

     Section 7. EMERGENCY.--It is necessary for the public peace, health and safety that this act take effect immediately.

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