Kyrsten Sinema [Senator, Arizona State Legislature]: “As an Arizonan, I was outraged when I learned of planned protests at the funerals of the victims of the January 8 shooting that killed six and wounded 17. The families of nine-year old Christina Taylor Green and Judge John Roll deserve to grieve in peace.

When I learned of the planned protests, Arizona had no law established regulating protests near funerals, so we began to look at other state statutes that had successfully addressed this issue in the past. As an attorney who specializes in constitutional law, I wanted to craft legislation that respects the First Amendment rights of protesters, while also providing a measure of peace and security for grieving families. We settled on language similar to Ohio’s law. The Ohio statute was recently upheld in the Sixth Circuit court.

Arizona’s new law [PDF] requires that protesters and picketers stand at least 300 feet from the location of a funeral during, one hour before, and one hour after a funeral service. The penalty for violating this law is a class one misdemeanor. We believe that this law represents a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction on the protesters’ right to assemble and speak freely. We also feel confident that our statute will survive constitutional scrutiny if it faces challenges in court.

I am grateful to my colleagues in the Arizona Legislature for supporting this emergency legislation. As I attended the beautiful services for Christina Taylor Green, there was no disruption. Tomorrow and into the future, we will have some comfort in knowing that grieving families will be able to grieve in peace.”