A protester holds a sign in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020. A bill proposed in the state legislature could put a damper on residential protests in the future. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | | Arizona Mirror
By Jerod MacDonald-Evvoy Januaey 19, 2023
A Republican bill aimed at stopping protests outside of residential properties has some First Amendment advocates worried, but lawmakers say it is needed in the currently heated political environment.
Senate Bill 1023 by Fountain Hills Republican John Kavanagh would amend the state’s existing residential picketing law to say that a person can be charged with picketing if a “reasonable person” would find their actions harassing, annoying or alarming, regardless of if the person doing the picketing intended to harass, annoy or alarm.
Currently state law only allows for a person to be charged with residential picketing, a misdemeanor, if they intentionally engage in picketing to “harass, annoy or alarm another person.” The new law leaves out the protester’s intent.
Kavanagh told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that under the proposed bill, responding law enforcement officers would be the second “decision makers” in determining if the picketing was “annoying or harassing.”
Kavanagh said the bill is for instances of “someone in a ski mask and (with) an iron pipe” outside your home picketing, and not a person with a “sign and a little flag.” Kavanagh during the committee hearing Thursday made multiple references to Gov. Katie Hobbs who had protesters outside her home multiple times when she was secretary of state.
