Onondaga County considers limits on protests outside places of worship

A protest outside a Syracuse church, synagogue or mosque could soon cross into misdemeanor territory under an Onondaga County bill that would ban demonstrators from standing within 10 feet of anyone entering or leaving a place of worship. The proposal also would draw a 35-foot line around the entrance during the hour before or after a ceremony, with a penalty of up to a $250 fine and one year in jail.

Republican Legislator Timothy Burtis, who sponsored the measure, said the idea grew out of his own experience with protesters at churches he attended and from similar confrontations that have drawn attention around the country. The draft covers churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and similar places of worship, but its language is broad enough to reach ceremonial gatherings that are not strictly religious, including some secular community meetings. Burtis has said his intent is to focus on worship services.

That drafting choice could matter in the real world. Under the bill as written, a protester who remains on a sidewalk 9 feet from a person leaving a temple would be inside the prohibited zone. So would someone who stays farther back, but still within 35 feet of the entrance, during the hour before or after a funeral, holiday service or other ceremony. That is the kind of edge case that will likely test whether the proposal is a public-safety measure or a restriction that goes too far under the First Amendment.

The county legislature’s Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to take up the bill on May 26. If it advances, lawmakers would vote on it at their June 2 monthly session, and County Executive Ryan McMahon would receive it if the legislature approves it.

The local debate is unfolding against a broader New York fight over protest boundaries near sensitive sites. In February, the New York Civil Liberties Union said nearly 100 organizations were opposing proposed anti-speech zones outside houses of worship and reproductive health clinics. The American Civil Liberties Union has warned that broad buffer zones can function like “no-speech zones” and says restrictions on protest should be narrow and context-specific. In March, lawmakers and advocates in Albany discussed a 25-foot buffer zone around houses of worship, showing that Onondaga County is moving into a statewide argument over where access ends and protected speech begins.