Can you hate that you agree with something? Westboro Baptist Church Wins Right To Picket Funerals

[WillParkinson]

MISSOURI: Westboro Baptist Church Wins Right To Picket Funerals

A federal judge in Missouri ruled yesterday that a ban on political protests near funerals is unconstitutional. In 2006 Missouri legislators passed the ban in an attempt to thwart the Westboro Baptist Church.

The primary state law had barred protests near any church, cemetery or funeral establishment from an hour before until an hour after any funeral ceremony, procession or memorial service. The secondary measure specifically stated protesters must stay back at least 300 feet from ceremonies and processions. Both provisions levied the same penalty: up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for a first offense and up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for repeat offenders. Judge Gaitan concluded Missouri officials did not demonstrate the protest restrictions served a significant government interest nor that they had been narrowly tailored to prevent the harm of interruptions of funeral services. The judge wrote he was sympathetic to the argument people attending a funeral deserve some protection but noted a federal appeals court already had previously rejected that argument.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/08/missouri-westboro-baptist-church-wins.html

[ejpoeta]

1. just becaue you have the right doesn't make it right. they should have the right, but

how would they feel if people picketed THEIR funeral? i bet they'd be pissed. they should ACT like christians instead of just saying they are.

[atreides1]

8. How do they act? Christians that is?

The only examples we have seen are Falwell, Robertson, and the theocratic evangelicals that want to piss on the US Constitution when it isn't in their favor.

Thanks to the main stream media, we hardly if ever get to see how Christians ACT. But we get Newt, Robertson, and the Phelps family.

[ejpoeta]

10. from what i can tell, true christians don't have to tell you they are christians.

it's the falwell's and all those other ones that give the rest of them a bad name. they go around telling everyone else how to live instead of focusing on their own selves as they should. i believe there are true christians out there. the ones who help others without expecting anything from it. the ones who don't try to tell everyone else how to live but just treat others with respect. they don't make good tv like the people we see on tv.

[dkf]

2. Appalling isn't it.

But freedom of religion and speech is what we worship above common decency.

It's funny how sensitivity to race, sex, orientation and minority religions demand sensitivity but families of the those who died because of us get none.

[Name removed]

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[steve2470]

3. National Socialist Party of America et al. v. Village of Skokie

432 U.S. 43 (more)
97 S. Ct. 2205; 53 L. Ed. 2d 96; 1977 U.S. LEXIS 113; 2 Media L. Rep. 1993

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_America_v._Village_of_Skokie

A similar case in protecting a hated minority.

[ismnotwasm]

4. I don't fucking agree

People die, get maimed and/or murdered because of this bullshit. Fire in a theater situation as far as I'm concerned. We may follow the letter of the law in this case, but we mutilate the spirit of it.

[Uncle Joe]

5. How does that compare to protest zones for actual political events?

Aren't they required to keep a distance?

Thanks for the thread, WillParkinson.

[VMI Dem]

6. I'd like to picket that fuckers funeral when his hateful ass dies.

[Bandit]

9. Free Speech Zones were declared legal though

Put them in a "Free Speech Zone" about ten blocks away, the same as Bush* did with Democrats everytime he came to talk somewhere.