Posted on 07/23/2006 11:30:59 AM PDT by newzjunkey
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.
The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians.
Missouri lawmakers were spurred to action after members of the church protested in St. Joseph, Mo., last August at the funeral of Army Spec. Edward L. Myers.
The law bans picketing and protests "in front of or about" any location where a funeral is held, from an hour before it begins until an hour after it ends. Offenders can face fines and jail time.
A number of other state laws and a federal law, signed in May by President Bush, bar such protests within a certain distance of a cemetery or funeral.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the Missouri law tries to limit protesters' free speech based on the content of their message. It is asking the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and to issue an injunction to keep it from being enforced, which would allow the group to resume picketing.
"I told the nation, as each state went after these laws, that if the day came that they got in our way, that we would sue them," said Phelps's daughter Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the church in Topeka, Kan. "At this hour, the wrath of God is pouring out on this country."
Scott Holste, a spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, said, "We're not going to acquiesce to anything that they're asking for in this lawsuit."
The suit names Nixon, Gov. Matt Blunt (R) and others as defendants.
Hard to tell which group has the darker heart.
Protest Phelps' funeral. Make a list of ACLU officers and make plans to protest their funerals.
we should all take comfort in knowing that there is a very special ring of Hell that is reserved for scum bags such as these.
They are going to be awfully busy! Cities and towns across the country have made ordinances protecting funerals from these 'people' and their ilk. Its not just MO! ACLU might have bit off more than they can chew on this one.
Saying someone violated his freedom of speech or to protest he sets up some nice civil rights suits and now bcaked by the ACLU he is shaking down any who stand in his way.
From Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church: In Their Own Words
Trained as a lawyer, Fred Phelps was disbarred in 1979 by the Kansas Supreme Court, which asserted that he had "little regard for the ethics of his profession." The formal complaint against Phelps charged that he misrepresented the truth in a motion for a new trial in a case he had brought, and that he held the defendant in the case up to "unnecessary public ridicule for which there is no basis in fact." Following his disbarment from Kansas State courts, Phelps continued to practice law in Federal courts. In 1985, nine Federal court judges filed a disciplinary complaint charging him and six of his family members, all attorneys, with making false accusations against them. The Phelpses fought the complaint but lost. In 1989, Fred Phelps agreed to surrender his license to practice law in Federal court in exchange for the Federal judges allowing the other members of his family to continue practicing in Federal court.
The Phelps and ACLU seem to be competing for the hottest corner of that ring of Hell.
I bet there is room for both of these pagans.
PS I am running out of words to describe people like this. Anyone else having the same problem?
Indeed...after words fail tears will follow.
Ping advisory.
Phelps et al have stooped to the same level as the homos, and the rest of the deviant crowd. You don't become a deviant to fight the deviants.
I'm not out of words....just out of words I'm allowed to post...*wink*
I suggest that anyone who wants more info on Phelps and his cult read the Wikipedia article on "Westboro Baptist Church".
The article is amazing the the amount of information it contains.
Gore sought help from anti-homosexual groupCheck it out.
'God hates fags' creator preaches 'hate because the Bible preaches hate'
Posted: October 25, 2000 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon E. Dougherty © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
A Kansas-based Baptist church led by a vehemently anti-homosexual pastor was once sought out by then-Sen. Al Gore, Jr. in his Democratic bid for the presidency in 1988, according to group leaders who at one time even worked for the Gore effort in Kansas.
Fred Phelps, Sr., pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., and creator of the notorious "God Hates Fags" website, said that when Gore was running for president 12 years ago, he enlisted "members of the Westboro Baptist Church to help run his 1988 campaign in Kansas."
Isn't there some way Baptist churches can sue for misuse of their denomination's name?
I doubt it but Phelps is about as much Baptist as I am muslim.
It seems clear to me that the Missouri lawmakers were using the word about as a preposition meaning 1: in a circle around: on every side of: AROUND, or more properly, 2a: in the immediate neighborhood of : NEAR as the law specifically addresses the time and place issues of these protests and not the content of said protests.
Yet the ACLU has filed a complaint that the Law in question seeks to stifle the “content of the protest” and seems to contend that the word “about” in the law address the definition: with regards to: CONCERNING.
This isn’t about the law per se, but the semantic wording of the law. The ACLU and Phelps are both grasping at straws here in my opinion.
Denying these protestors the ability to protest at funerals does not violate their rights.The disruption caused by these protestors is VIOLATING THE RIGHTS of those attending the funeral which takes priority!See there!Another stupid first amendment problem solved!
If you falsely shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater, you can be arrested based precisely on the content of the message.Has this arrogant *%@#@&! protested any muslim funerals yet?
Didn't think so . . .
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