Two GOP state lawmakers want Ohio to enact harsher penalties for protesters who disturb religious worship.
Introduced last Thursday by Reps. Tex Fischer (R-Boardman) and Johnathan Newman (R-Troy), House Bill 662 would raise it from a first-degree misdemeanor to a fifth-degree felony to “obstruct” or “interfere with” services at churches, synagogues or mosques, as well as online religious gatherings.
“I do worry that this could become more common,” Fischer said in an interview. “Ultimately, that’s what we’re trying to stop. We want to stop this from happening before we have to arrest people and put them in jail, just to send a very strong message, don’t do this in Ohio.”
Fischer said he introduced HB 662 after seeing viral video from Minnesota of anti-Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters disturbing a Sunday service over a pastor’s alleged day job as an ICE field director. Federal agents later arrested former CNN anchor Don Lemon and a local journalist, who were covering the incident.
Disturbing religious worship only became a first-degree misdemeanor in 2023, under House Bill 504, which got just one ‘no’ vote between the Ohio House and Ohio Senate.
Lawmakers then cited the need for the change in criminal law after numerous anti-Semitic incidents during Jewish services held over Zoom in 2020 and the disturbance of a Catholic mass in downtown Columbus by abortion rights activists in 2021. Four of those abortion rights protesters later pleaded guilty to minor misdemeanors, according to Franklin County court records.
To give HB 662 more teeth, Fischer said he wants to amend it to give the state attorney general the ability to charge protesters, if local prosecutors decline to do so.
“I think this is something that should transcend politics and your specific denomination or specific faith,” he said.
HB 662 has yet to be scheduled for its first committee hearing. No legislative Democrats have signed on to it so far.
