JEFFERSON CITY, MO. ? Two legislators proposed a law Friday making it a crime to protest at a funeral, in response to an anti-gay group that has protested at military funerals in Missouri and around the country.

But some First Amendment experts said the idea could be unconstitutional.

Republican Sen. Charlie Shields and Democratic Rep. Martin Rucker, both of St. Joseph, promoted the idea on Veterans Day, after a protest during the August funeral services of Spc. Edward Myers, a St. Joseph soldier killed in Iraq.

“Quite honestly I’d never heard of anybody ever protesting a funeral. It was really pretty disgusting,” Shields said.

Members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., protested and waved anti-military signs. Church leader Fred Phelps contends American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church is not affiliated with a larger denomination and is made up mostly of Phelps’ children, grandchildren and in-laws.

Shields said the proposal, which is to be filed Dec. 1 for consideration during next year’s legislative session, was modeled after a Kansas law. Similar ideas have been proposed in other states.

The measure would bar protests at or near a funeral from an hour before to an hour after the service. Shields said the time restrictions should allow the law to withstand a legal challenge.

But Ronald Collins, a scholar with the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., said such a law likely would infringe on constitutional free-speech rights. He said it would be difficult to apply it in a content-neutral way without restricting those who wish to show their respect for the dead.