The ‘Don Lemon law’? Idaho lawmakers want to keep protests out of churches
State Rep. Bruce Skaug was disturbed to see video in January showing protesters and reporters descending on a Sunday service at a Minneapolis church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer served as pastor.
On social media, videos showed that protesters interrupted services with calls for “ICE out” of the city, The New York Times reported.
The incident “brought into focus” concerns the Nampa Republican been hearing from Idaho church groups concerned about their own security, he told the Idaho Statesman. And it prompted him to propose a bill to spell out in Idaho code that disrupting services at a house of worship would count as “disturbing the peace,” a misdemeanor.
“I joke that this is the Don Lemon law, which it’s not,” Skaug said, referring to a former CNN anchor who was arrested after covering the Minneapolis protest from inside the church. “We had some complaints here in Idaho” from people involved in their churches’ security teams. (Lemon was later released from jail without bond, The New York Times reported.)
At the same time, Senate Pro Tem Kelly Anthon, R-Declo, is working on a separate bill to add a specific criminal trespassing offense for entering church premises when not allowed.
Anthon said the two bills were complementary, not in competition. “They’re focusing attention on the same concerns,” he told the Statesman.
The bills are the latest chapter in rising local concerns about the security of houses of worship. Idaho began to see increase in the number of houses of worship with their own armed security teams as residents “started to see some actions against churches nationwide” and wanted to ensure “people weren’t just wandering in and harming folks,” former Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay, told the Statesman in 2024.
Dixon sponsored a bill that became law in 2024 to grant religious organizations’ security teams legal immunity from civil damages.
On Wednesday, the Senate State Affairs Committee voted to send Anthon’s bill to the full Senate The House Judiciary and Rules Committee voted Feb. 24 to send Skaug’s bill to the House.
