Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry addresses members of the House and Senate on opening day of a legislative special session, Feb. 19, 2024, in the House Chamber at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Landry has signed legislation that makes it a crime to knowingly approach within 25 feet of a police officer while they are "engaged in law enforcement duties" after the officer has ordered the person to stay back. (Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP, File)
In 2022, lawmakers in Arizona passed a law that would have made it illegal to knowingly film police officers 8 feet or closer if the officer tells the person to stop. A coalition of media groups and the American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued to block Arizona's law, with a federal judge ruling it unconstitutional, citing infringement against a clearly established right to film police doing their jobs.
In similar cases, half of the U.S. appeals courts across the nation have ruled on the side of allowing people to record police without restriction.
The Louisiana measure's author, state Rep. Bryan Fontenot, said the legislation was drafted to provide officers "peace of mind and safe distance to do their job."
"At 25 feet, that person can’t spit in my face when I’m making an arrest," Fontenot said while presenting his bill in a committee earlier this year. "The chances of him hitting me in the back of the head with a beer bottle at 25 feet — it sure is a lot more difficult than if he’s sitting right here."
A nearly identical bill was vetoed last year by then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. Edwards called the measure "unnecessary" and said it could be used "to chill exercise of First Amendment rights."
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"Each of us has a constitutional right to freely observe public servants as they function in public and within the course and scope of their official duties," Edwards, who served in the U.S. Army and was the son of a sheriff, said in last year’s veto message. "Observations of law enforcement, whether by witnesses to an incident with officers, individuals interacting with officers, or members of the press, are invaluable in promoting transparency."
However, with a new conservative governor in office and the GOP continuing to hold a supermajority in the Louisiana Legislature, the bill had a clear path forward.
Language in the measure appears to put in some safety nets, stating that an acceptable "defense to this crime" includes establishing that the "lawful order or command was neither received nor understood by the defendant."
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-louisiana-law-criminalizes-approaching-police-after-ordered-stay-back