MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BY ROBERT PATRICK • rpatrick@post-dispatch.com > 314-621-5154
ST. LOUIS • The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and other victims’ group sued St. Louis police, prosecutors, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Missouri Attorney General in federal court here Wednesday, seeking to block enforcement of a new law prohibiting the disruption of worship services.
At issue is the “House of Worship Protection Act,” which makes disturbing or interrupting a church or other house of worship, either inside or near that church, a misdemeanor. The charge becomes a felony on the third and subsequent offenses.
The new law becomes effective Aug. 28.
The lawsuit says that the law would ban protests in traditional public areas such as parks and sidewalks near those houses of worship. Those are areas where SNAP and the other group, Voice of the Faithful in Kansas City, often picket or protest, the suit says.
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