Santa Ana : Pickets Barred Outside Council Member Homes

The City Council passed an emergency ordinance Monday afternoon aimed at prohibiting people protesting the upcoming gay pride festival from picketing the homes of council members.

The ordinance was passed unanimously just minutes before the first of 350 protesters--primarily religious fundamentalists--began gathering outside City Hall for a rally.

City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said the ordinance prohibits protesters, effective immediately, from even standing on public sidewalks outside council members’ homes and is “perfectly constitutional.”

“Invading the privacy of an individual should not be legal,” Cooper said.

A 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, involving the picketing of physicians’ homes by anti-abortion activists in Wisconsin, established the legality of such ordinances, he said.

Cooper said several council members have received threatening letters from protesters opposed to the gay pride festival, planned for Sept. 9 and 10 in Centennial Park. Cooper has advised council members that they cannot legally revoke the permit for the festival, despite the repeated protests of anti-gay activists.

The ordinance was prompted by information obtained by Santa Ana police that “a certain group” intends to picket the homes to pressure council members to call off the event “regardless of legal constraints,” Cooper said.

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Anaheim-based California Coalition for Traditional Values and leader of the protesters Monday night said he learned of the emergency ordinance with “surprise and shock. . . . We just want to say we represent peace and order, but if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Apparently, some of these elected officials know that 95% of Santa Ana feel the event is inappropriate.”