US: New law pushes protesters farther from churches, schools

“No one should be afraid to see their doctor, to learn, to pray or to attend a school meeting,” City Attorney Mara Elliott said.

The new ordinance requires demonstrators to ask for permission to approach someone if they are within the protected 100 feet surrounding the protection location. In the ordinance prior, the “burden” was on the person entering or leaving the protected place to say they didn’t want to engage or talk.

“What we’ve done in this amendment is flipped that around, and now people who are engaged in their first amendment right to demonstrate have to affirmatively ask for permission to get within 8 feet of the person trying to enter the healthcare facility or place of worship or school,” said Heather Ferbert, a deputy city attorney with the City of San Diego.

This law hadn’t been updated since 1997. It aims to strike a balance between protecting first amendment rights, and also protecting people trying to access healthcare facilities, churches and schools.

This update comes after a surge of large protests and demonstrations in recent years, pandemic-era protests and politically-charged protests in San Diego, and around the nation.

“For nearly three decades the city’s laws on this issue have remain unchanged and yet we know that our social and our political landscape has evolved, particularly in recent years and the need to protect the public from undue harassment and intimidation while still preserving their first amendment rights has become even more pressing,” Mayor Todd Gloria said.

The ordinance also includes a noise limitation, Elliott said there had been complaints of protestors using bullhorns and disrupting employee’s workdays.

With the mayor’s signature, the new ordinance is already in affect.