(a) Prohibition.—For any funeral of a member or former member of the Armed Forces that is not located at a cemetery under the control of the National Cemetery Administration or part of Arlington National Cemetery, it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in an activity during the period beginning 120 minutes before and ending 120 minutes after such funeral, any part of which activity—
(1)
(3) is on or near the boundary of the residence, home, or domicile of any surviving member of the deceased person’s immediate family and includes any individual willfully making or assisting in the making of any noise or diversion—
(b) Penalty.—
Any person who violates subsection (a) shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 1 year, or both.
(c) Civil Remedies.—
(3) Claims.—Any person, including a surviving member of the deceased person’s immediate family, who suffers injury as a result of conduct that violates this section may—
(4) Estoppel.—
A final judgment or decree rendered in favor of the United States in any criminal proceeding brought by the United States under this section shall estop the defendant from denying the essential allegations of the criminal offense in any subsequent civil proceeding brought by a person or by the United States.
(d) Actual and Statutory Damages.—
(1) In general.—
In addition to any penalty imposed under subsection (b), a violator of this section is liable in an action under subsection (c) for actual or statutory damages as provided in this subsection.
(2) Actions by private persons.—
A person bringing an action under subsection (c)(3) may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover the actual damages suffered by him or her as a result of the violation or, instead of actual damages, an award of statutory damages for each violation involved in the action.
(e) Rebuttable Presumption.—
It shall be a rebuttable presumption that the violation was committed willfully for purposes of determining relief under this section if the violator, or a person acting in concert with the violator, did not have reasonable grounds to believe, either from the attention or publicity sought by the violator or other circumstance, that the conduct of such violator or person would not disturb or tend to disturb the peace or good order of such funeral, impede or tend to impede the access to or egress from such funeral, or disturb or tend to disturb the peace of any surviving member of the deceased person’s immediate family who may be found on or near the residence, home, or domicile of the deceased person’s immediate family on the date of the service or ceremony.
(f) Definitions.—In this section—
(1)
the term “Armed Forces” has the meaning given the term in section 101 of title 10 and includes members and former members of the National Guard who were employed in the service of the United States; and
(2)
the term “immediate family” means, with respect to a person, the immediate family members of such person, as such term is defined in section 115 of this title.
(Added Pub. L. 109–464, § 1(a), Dec. 22, 2006, 120 Stat. 3480; amended Pub. L. 112–154, title VI, § 601(b), Aug. 6, 2012, 126 Stat. 1196.)