The Salt Lake City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday making it illegal to stage protests within 100 feet outside private residences.

The ordinance was considered because of incidents in which animal rights activists from the Utah Primate Freedom Project staged protests outside the homes of researchers who work with animals at the University of Utah.

On July 11, university officials wrote a memo to the council asking them to ban or restrict picketing. Beginning in 2005 and as recently as April, the activists aimed protests at university faculty, shouting through bullhorns and intimidating them, the memo said.

The council passed the ordinance with a 5-2 vote, despite concerns that it might violate the First Amendment.

"I think it's wrong for Salt Lake City to trample the Constitution like this," said David Berg, director of political outreach for the Utah Animal Rights Coalition.

Berg, whose group does not picket outside homes, said such protests are crucial forms of free speech and should be protected.

Councilman Eric Jergensen said it was a matter of balancing the right to free speech with the rights of people to feel safe and have privacy in their homes.

The council wasn't restricting the group's right to protest, but was simply restricting the place they're allowed to do so, he said.

Berg said he expects the Utah Primate Freedom Project to bring legal action against the council. If that group doesn't, he said, the Utah Animal Rights Coalition will, he predicted.

According to a memorandum prepared by city staff, other cities have passed similar ordinances that have been upheld as legal. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar ordinance in Wisconsin.

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