It's the Brian Laris show on WNYC.

Happy Friday, everybody.

By the end of tomorrow, we will know if Mayor Mamdani vetoes a pair of so-called buffer zone bills passed by city council.

The state legislature is considering its own protest buffer zone bills.

And as of this week, so is Congress, where the bill just introduced by Tom Swazi, the

centrist Democrat, Queens, and Long Island congressmen.

So what is a buffer zone?

Does it actually target protesters? And how are

these bills different from each other? Well, simply put, these bills require protesters to remain a

certain distance away from certain locations that the bills specify. Abortion clinics have been

protected by such bills in the past so the women entering don't get

harassed or blocked from entering right now since the pro-Palestinian protests broke out in response to

Israel's military action in Gaza in 2023 there are new proposals that would set up buffer zones

around houses of worship and educational institutions.

There are, of course, been acts of violence at some of these places that have done a lot to

prompt these bills. The bills are hotly contested, though. Supporters, like City Council Speaker

Julie Menon, say they're needed, considering how some of these protests have gone to protect

worshippers and others from injury, intimidation, and obstruction. Opponents argue that

keeping protests too far from who or what they're protesting violates their free speech rights.

Opponents include civil rights groups, some unions, and interestingly, Planned Parenthood.

Let's get details now on the bills at the three levels of government and political analysis of the

competing camps and the decisions facing Mayor Mamdani by tomorrow's deadline to veto.

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