Case Explained:This article breaks down the legal background, charges, and implications of Case Explained: Disrupting worship services could become a felony as dueling bills advance to chamber floors • South Dakota Searchlight – Legal Perspective
PIERRE — Two pieces of legislation are going to South Dakota’s House and Senate floors with different levels of increased penalties for disturbing worshippers.
One bill, introduced by Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer, R-Aberdeen, would create a new felony crime of entering or remaining in a place of worship with the intent to “menace or harass congregants or employees,” or for “the purpose of political intimidation of or the incitement of fear of violence in those attending.”
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The crime would be punishable by up to five years in state prison and the possibility of a $10,000 fine. The bill also protects the 50 feet around a house of worship an hour before or after services.
The House Judiciary committee advanced it Monday with a 7-4 vote.
“We live in increasingly dangerous times to be a Christian, conservative or even just a patriot who loves America,” Schaefbauer told the committee. “We are a divided nation and, sadly, even our houses of worship are now battlefields of this unfortunate political divide.”
Motivated by Minnesota protest
Schaefbauer said she was inspired by a protest last month in St. Paul, Minnesota, where demonstrators disrupted a church service while protesting the operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, resulting in arrests and federal charges. A pastor of the church works for ICE, which has had thousands of agents in Minnesota conducting enforcement actions for weeks. While operating in the state, federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January.
Schaefbauer’s bill brought questions from committee members and legal experts, some with concern for the 50-foot perimeter and one-hour time buffer it establishes.
“Where this would apply would apply to public forums, streets, sidewalks,” said Cash Anderson with the South Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “It can chill otherwise legal speech.”
The bill is vague, said Samantha Chapman, American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota advocacy manager.
“It will be up to the law enforcement officer who’s responding to determine what the intention was of the demonstrators,” she said. “Ultimately, we think that this bill is a reactionary response.”
One opponent, Sam Matson of the South Dakota Trial Lawyers Association, asked if actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would also be prohibited by the bill.
Rep. John Hughes, R-Sioux Falls, said he had a “pit in his stomach” over the legislation. He said the bill’s reach is “overly broad.”
“We already have criminal trespass on the statutes, we already have stalking,” he said. “What are we doing here?”
South Dakota also has a law making it a misdemeanor crime to intentionally, by threats or violence, prevent another person from performing any lawful religious act.
Governor’s bill
Separate legislation has been filed on behalf of Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden that would raise the penalties in that existing law to a felony.
Schaefbauer criticized that approach.
“It’s really just updating words,” she told the committee Monday. “Mine is a whole new section in our trespassing laws.”
Rhoden’s bill would make the existing crime punishable by two years in state prison, a $4,000 fine or both. The current penalty is up to a year of county jail time and $2,000 fine.
Governor proposes stiffer penalties for threats or violence that prevent religious practices
Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, is a sponsor of the governor’s bill. He told a committee Tuesday that the bill was also inspired by the events in St. Paul.
“When people have that kind of hubris and pull a stunt like that,” he said, “I don’t think a misdemeanor is enough.”
Chapman of the ACLU said there hasn’t been a case tried in relation to the existing law since its adoption in the 1990s.
The governor’s bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary committee with all “yes” votes, but some committee members raised concern about whether the felony charge would make a difference.
“Folks who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way, including dying in the streets, there’s an agenda that’s occurring,” said Sen. Tamara Grove, R-Lower Brule. “Two years in prison, that doesn’t really deter someone who is motivated by a particular belief.”
That belief, she told South Dakota Searchlight afterward, is Marxism.
“When you have that belief system, you’re really willing to do whatever it takes to get done what you want to get done, and it begins with anarchy and a lot of chaos,” she said. “I think it, at the end of the day, is a little bit political and so I did vote for it, but I don’t think it’s going to do a whole lot.”
Sen. Tom Pischke, R-Dell Rapids, also said the bill “feels like we’re sending a political message.”
The bills will be brought next to the full House and Senate, respectively.