Florida Gov Signs Law Making It Illegal To Protest Outside An Individual’s Home

On Monday, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that makes it a crime to protest outside an individual’s home.

“Sending unruly mobs to private residences, like we have seen with the angry crowds in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices, is inappropriate,” DeSantis said. “This bill will provide protection to those living in residential communities and I am glad to sign it into law.”

The law will go into effect on October 1, and once “this law takes effect, law enforcement officers will provide a warning to any person picketing or protesting outside of a dwelling and will make arrests for residential picketing only if the person does not peaceably disperse after the warning. Residential picketing will be punishable as a second-degree misdemeanor,” DeSantis’ office explained.

“It is unlawful for a person to picket or protest before or about the dwelling of any person with the intent to harass or disturb that person in his or her dwelling,” the text of the bill says. “Before a person may be arrested for a violation of this section, a law enforcement officer… or a local, state, federal, or military law enforcement agency must go as near to the person as may be done with safety and shall command any person picketing or protesting before or about the dwelling of a person to immediately and peaceably disperse. If any such person does not thereupon immediately and peaceably disperse, he or she may be arrested for a violation of this section.”

The new law comes in response to leftist protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices following the leak of a draft of a Supreme Court majority opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to Politico.

“Roughly 100 protesters appeared outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house, where they carried signs and chanted slogans before walking a half-mile to Chief Justice John Roberts’s home, then back to Kavanaugh’s home, where police ordered them to leave the area,” The Washington Examiner reported last week.