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 . . .
I have plenty of words for both the Westboro Church of Satan and the ACLU. If they succeed in forcing the Federal courts to permit such blasphemy at soldiers' funerals, the only question is what would be the next step in stopping them? I'm afraid the next course of action would not be a particularly Christian one, but a necessary one.
They are not insane. They are deliberately pursuing an evil purpose and daring anyone to stop them. They are thinking clearly, just pure evil.
As usual, the Communist ACLU only defends "free speech" designed to tear down the country. How clever, defend a "church" that seeks to undermine the USA and then (no doubt) point to that very same "church" down the road to "prove" the ACLU is an equal opportunity defender of "free speech" (while at the same time publicizing and promoting the standard Leftist caricature of the Christian Church as racist and bigoted). How anyone can be duped by the ACLU's tactics is beyond me.
Just did a little research on Phelps. Just as I suspected, it would appear that Phelps is a tool/creature of the hard-Left. Here are a few snippets from Wikipedia:
"Phelps has repeatedly championed Fidel Castro for Castro's stance against homosexuality; in 1998 Harper's magazine published a letter Phelps sent to Castro in which he praised Castro and lambasted the U.S. In 2004, when a pro-homosexual Cuban refugee announced plans to travel to Cuba, Phelps sent another letter to Castro "warning" him of the man's plans and requesting travel visas for a group of WBC congregants so that they could follow the refugee around Havana with signs bearing anti-U.S. and anti-homosexual slogans. Castro also ignored that appeal."
"In 2003, before the fall of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Phelps wrote Hussein a letter praising his regime for being, in his opinion, "the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets." [29] Furthermore, he stated that he would like to send a delegation to Baghdad to "preach the Gospel" for one week. Hussein granted permission, and a group of WBC congregants traveled to Iraq to protest against the U.S. The parishioners stood on the streets of Baghdad and heavily patronized Baghdad establishments holding signs condemning Bill and Hillary Clinton and anal sex. [30]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rev._Fred_Phelps
So in essence this bunch is pulling a modified Jesse Jackson?
For some interesting tidbits on Phelps, see post #24
Why are you surprised. Afterall, Phelps is a Democrat and pals with Algore.
If the guy turns up dead some day, would it be a hate crime ?
At this time there are two articles posted on this subject. The other is:
Kansas Church Sues, Claiming Missouri Funeral Picket Law Chills Free Speech (Phelps)
Pretty much, most of his congregation is his family, most of them are lawyers.
The M.O. seems to be make the biggest ruckus they can, then after being forced out claim civil rights violations, or more lucrative for them, hope for physical confrontations at the protest sites.
You hit the nail on the head. Phelps generates sympathy for the homos and vilification for Christians falling in line with the Demorat party line.
I would guess Pfred and the Westboro bunch. To my understanding the ACLU is made up primarily of Soviet style
communists and their wannabe's Now led by the Reprobate-
giving full meaning to Pinko Fag. But the Westboro bunch
claims to be a religious group -though I find nothing in their actions to glorify God.They like Barry Linn will be
judged more severely for misleading those seeking Gods Truth.
My 'freedom of speech' is to plant a 30-06 between the eyes of these as$4013s.
It is appropriate for the any government to rent a facility to or to give a reservation of a facility to a group with a special event.
This happens with everything from family reunions in parks to concerts in parks to services in cemeteries.
Those who have been granted the facility by rent or reservation can control trespassing.
This is not an unusual thing, nor is anyone's free speech hampered. They can speak all they want.
It is appropriate for the any government to rent a facility to or to give a reservation of a facility to a group with a special event.
This happens with everything from family reunions in parks to concerts in parks to services in cemeteries.
Those who have been granted the facility by rent or reservation can control trespassing.
This is not an unusual thing, nor is anyone's free speech hampered. They can speak all they want.
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em, Down Hezbullies.)
How clever, defend a "church" that seeks to undermine the USA and then (no doubt) point to that very same "church" down the road to "prove" the ACLU is an equal opportunity defender of "free speech" (while at the same time publicizing and promoting the standard Leftist caricature of the Christian Church as racist and bigoted). How anyone can be duped by the ACLU's tactics is beyond me.
------
Well stated -- but it is not very clever on the part of the ACLU. They are identified anti-American communists, and ANYTHING they do is most likely designed at the destruction of our Constitutional Free Republic and its system of values, principles and ethics.
Though with Catholic churches, there are Eastern Rite churches as well as the Latin Rite (what we think of as Roman Catholicism)...
I see...
Kinda like trying to label a generic cookie as an Oreo...
The limits I can think of now are all based on content and the site. They are free to protest most anywhere else away from the site. The classic "Yelling fire in a theater:" If someone yelled "water" people would throw popcorn at him. If they had some they might throw water at him (or her, in this age of equal opportunity more and more women are stand up to the challenge and being stupid in public too.) Now yelling fire in a gun club.
Strange, I don't recall the ACLU filing any suits to protect the rights of pro-life protestors to protest in front of abortion clinics.
Never knew that...
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