Protesters targeted Whitmire’s home. Now he wants it to be illegal to come within 200 feet.

Editor’s note: the story has been updated to correct the spelling of Al-Awda Houston

Mayor John Whitmire is proposing a ban on the targeted picketing of any residential dwelling in Houston after months of pro-Palestininian protests in front of his own house.

Protesting in front of public officials’ homes has been a practice used by organizers in the U.S. for decades, prompted by topics like abortion rights and civil rights. Following several months of protests in front of Whitmire’s house, as well as the homes of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, the mayor said police need “another tool in the tool kit” to manage demonstrators who seek an end to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza: A ban on protesting within 200 feet of a targeted home.

“It’s picketing, but it’s getting very aggressive. It will still be allowed, they just need to give a little more space,” Whitmire said Tuesday.

Protesters say the proposal will chill their First Amendment rights by banning protests near residential properties in a city with no zoning in the first place.

“There’s already a legal system in place to prevent these things from getting out of hand. This is upping the ante far beyond what anyone would consider a legitimate regulation of speech,” said Saif Kazim, who has not attended any of the protests in front of Whitmire’s home but is a member of the grassroots coalition that has organized many of the pro-Palestininian protests in the city.

The protests have taken place in front of the homes of the elected leaders for months, sometimes beginning in the morning and some beginning after dark, according to local media reports . The protesters normally chant, clap and hold signs encouraging officials to cut ties with the state of Israel over the war.

Earlier this month, eight protesters were detained and given citations for violating the city’s noise ordinance during a pro-Palestinian, nighttime demonstration in front of Whitmire’s house, officials said.

Activism surrounding the decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestinians has exploded locally and nationally since Oct. 7, when war began after Hamas launched a cross-border attack that the Israeli government said left around 1,200 people dead. Israel responded by invading Gaza, launching a now nine-month long campaign against Hamas that has killed more than 39,000 people, displaced millions and created the risk of famine for Gaza’s population of 2 million people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Protesters say Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attack has been excessive and caused the deaths of tens-of-thousands of innocent civilians. They generally call for a ceasefire and for an end to U.S. military and financial aid being sent to Israel. Israel maintains it is following international law and takes steps to avoid civilian casualties.

Astra Day, a member of pro-Palestinian grassroots organization Al-Awda Houston and Houston for Palestinian Liberation, said she has attended a handful of the protests in front of officials’ homes this year. The protests are not organized by one group, Day said, but rather a coalition of grassroots organizations.

“There’s this common misconception that we’re angry and we’re just out there to harass Whitmire,” Day said. “We’re out there to speak out against injustice, to speak out for peace, not tyranny, and to call for an end to the genocide.”

The groups take steps to ensure their demonstrations do not violate city ordinances already in place, like the noise ordinance and a ban on blocking sidewalks and driveways, Day said. The demonstrations she attended were always peaceful, Day added.

The protesters are calling on Whitmire to denounce Israel’s military campaign and advocate for a ceasefire. They also want the city of Houston to divest from the state of Israel by ending certain bond payments that go to the country , Kazim said.

Whitmire in particular has refused to engage with pro-Palestinian groups, Kazim said, causing them to take their protests directly to his home.

Whitmire’s office did not respond on Tuesday to a Houston Landing interview request.

Cruz and Fletcher have caught the groups’ ire for the campaign funds they have accepted from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel political action committee tied to the Israeli government.

Cruz has voiced annoyance with the regular protests in front of his house.

“For the past 6 months, anti-Israel protesters have come to my home just about every (Saturday) morning at 7 a.m. and most (Friday) nights until 10 or 11 p.m.,” Cruz posted on social media in June . “They scream, disturb the peace & wake the neighbors. No matter how much these antisemites cheer Hamas, I will stand with Israel.”

Conservatives have claimed the national protests are rooted in antisemitism. The local protesters say their protests are not anti semitic, but rather a response to the actions of the government of Israel.

A video attached to Cruz’s post showed a small group of protesters lining the sidewalk, ringing cowbells and blowing whistles. One held a sign that read “No rest for the wicked.”

Protesting in front of an official’s home is not novel in the U.S.

Many municipalities around the country have ordinances on the books banning or restricting the targeted protesting of homes that date back to anti-abortion protests in front of doctors’ homes in the 80s and 90s, said Emily Berman, a constitutional law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

A federal law has also been on the books since 1950 that prohibits demonstrations “with the intent of influencing any judge.” After the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, the governors of Virginia and Maryland called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to enforce that statute against abortion rights protesters demonstrating in front of the houses of conservative justices .

The Supreme Court has held that such regulations of protests are constitutional, so long as protesters have another venue to publicly express their beliefs, Berman said. First Amendment rights are not absolute if other rights, like the right to privacy, are infringed upon by the act, she added.

“The idea is that, for the most part, our view of free speech is you can say whatever you want, and if you don’t want to hear it, you can walk away,” Berman said. “That is obviously not the case at your own house, so the Supreme Court has said this type of regulation is OK.”

If the ban was extended to include entire neighborhoods rather than a specific home, that would likely violate the First Amendment, Berman said.

Regardless of the proposal’s constitutionality, it is not likely to be rubber stamped by City Council during Wednesday’s meeting.

“I think it’s tone deaf,” said District F Council Member Tiffany Thomas. “My experience as a Black woman, I’ve been on the side of needing to protest. It’s easy to legislate these things when you’ve never had to be on the streets protesting to have your voice heard.”

Thomas said she intends to oppose the measure.

District B Council Member Tarsha Jackson said she understands the need for the proposal because she finds the protests targeting officials’ homes to be ineffective and intimidating, often leading to policies that make protesting harder like Whitmire’s proposal.

“Talk to your leadership, set meetings up. There are processes in place,” Jackson said. “I’m an organizer, so there are times you have to do this and protest, but at the end of the day, there should be some boundaries.”

The debate over First Amendment rights and the protesters’ methods for calling attention to the war is exactly the distraction protesters are hoping to avoid, Kazim said.

“I don’t want to make this all about free speech either, because what the protesters would say is our local officials are supporting a genocide,” Kazim said. “They‘re concerned people of conscience who can’t sit idly by and let that happen. They’re going to use any tools at their disposal to make their voices heard.”