Louisiana empowers churches to forcibly remove service protesters

Louisiana has passed two laws aimed at stopping people from disrupting church services, months after protesters made national headlines by disrupting a Minnesota church service in opposition to one of its pastors serving as a federal immigration enforcement agent. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed House Bill 294, which helps empower churches to remove trespassers from their property, and House Bill 68, which expands the legal definition of disturbing the peace to include disrupting worship services. HB 294 states that any religious leader, security team member "or person who is lawfully on the premises of a church or other place of...