“Can I read it first?”

I was on my way to the Amendment Office with the advocates’ proposed changes to my legislation.

And I did read the bill with the staff lawyer who would draft the amendments before I gave my OK.

It is an advocate or lobbyist’s job to advance their cause, but it is ultimately the member’s decision to make as to what is sound public policy.

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Last week, you may recall, I testified on a bill of mine that was prompted by a Supreme Court decision.

Next fall, the court will hear a case that may affect a law that I helped pass four years ago.

Rev. Fred Phipps and the Westboro Baptist Church are infamous for their anti-gay sloganeering. “Fag troops” and “Thank God for dead soldiers” were among the signs they displayed outside the funeral in Westminster, Md. of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The Marine’s father sued in federal court and won a $5 million defamation judgment. The Supreme Court announced today that it will decide whether the church members’ right to free speech is violated by that damage award.

Our bill makes it a crime to knowingly obstruct another person’s access to a funeral, address speech to a person attending a funeral that is likely to produce an imminent breach of the peace, or picket within 100 feet of a funeral.

Rev. Phipps and his followers were not prosecuted for violating that law. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court’s decision next term will discuss the free speech principles that guided us in crafting our statute.