West Deptford seeks to limit protests near homes

Residents of West Deptford's Nottingham Road very much like their quiet, leafy street - a place, they say, where residents maintain well-groomed lawns and wave hello to one another. It's not exactly where they would expect public policy to be hashed out on the sidewalk, even if the state Senate president is their neighbor.

"I know people have a right to peaceful protest," Paul Bullinger, an 82-year-old retired accountant, said outside his home last week. "But there's a time and place for everything."

Bullinger said he disagreed with the setting that dozens of gun-rights proponents chose for their protests on two Sunday afternoons last month - a few houses away, outside Democratic Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney's house.

But whether to impose legal restrictions on such speech remains a contentious issue between some public officials as a final vote on a proposed ordinance to regulate "targeted" residential picketing approaches. Some question the effects of limiting First Amendment rights, while others point to the right of privacy also guaranteed to residents.

The ordinance, expected to be considered for a final vote Wednesday, would prohibit "picketing that is targeted at and is within one hundred (100) feet of the property line of a residential dwelling in West Deptford." Lawful picketing beyond that, however, would be limited to no more than 10 people for one hour every two weeks. Such protesters would need to provide police 24 hours' notice.

The measure is likely to pass; the five-member township committee's three Democrats approved it on first reading last month, days after the second protest outside Sweeney's home (when the Senate president reportedly turned on sprinklers to fend off the picketers).

"Everybody knows this is happening because there were protests at Steve Sweeney's house," said Committeeman Jerry Maher, a Republican. "There was a group of people that had an issue that wanted to get attention," but "this isn't something that's an issue in West Deptford."

Maher, who questioned the enforceability of a measure based on property lines, said he, too, disliked the idea of picketing outside a home. But "it doesn't mean they don't have a right to," he said.

"I'm sure that the people that had the Boston Tea Party didn't ask for permission before they did that," he added.

Violators of the ordinance could be subject to fines of up to $2,000, imprisonment of up to 90 days, or community service of up to 90 days.

Michael Twersky, a lawyer with Fox Rothschild who has represented clients on First Amendment issues, said he could see litigation arising as a result of the measure.

"I certainly could see an entity challenging the ordinance as being too restrictive on speech," he said.

Those in favor of the measure say it is not about Sweeney, but about all residents who could be affected by such gatherings - and the police resources required to monitor them.

Sweeney did not return a request to interview about the ordinance.

West Deptford's attorneys say they are confident that the policy would pass judicial scrutiny, in part partly because the language is neutral in terms of content and viewpoint.

Michael Miles, a lawyer with Brown & Connery, the town's labor counsel, said the restrictions were inspired by a 1994 New Jersey Supreme Court decision that affirmed a court injunction regulating picketing outside an abortion doctor's home. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court also upheld a Wisconsin town's ban on picketing at an individual's residence.

Miles also noted two municipalities in New Jersey that ban picketing outside residences altogether: Camden and Harding, Morris County. Compared with those types of prohibitions, he said, West Deptford's measure would offer "greater protections" to free speech.

Mayor Denice DiCarlo said she trusted the legal advice that the committee had received. "We're trying to balance the right to privacy as well as free speech," she said. There has been "little to no focus" on additional rights West Deptford gives the homeowners, she added.

On Nottingham Road, many residents said they supported efforts to regulate such demonstrations even though the protests - which blamed Sweeney for tight gun restrictions and focused on the killing of a South Jersey woman who had tried to get a gun to protect herself - were largely peaceful.

Bullinger, who has lived in the neighborhood for 35 years, said he supported such controls. Saying that he was a registered Republican and was not commenting on the Second Amendment group's message, he said such protests would be better suited to Sweeney's district office less than a mile away, or to Trenton.

"I could understand why some people could feel uncomfortable having demonstrators outside their home," especially if the protesters had been raucous, said resident Jason Bruner, 33. Neighbors, he said, "didn't ask to live down the street from the senator."