New Targets For The Funeral Protestors

by John Hawkins | February 9, 2007 4:18 pm

Fred Phelps and his cult[1] have apparently moved on from protesting the funerals of gays and soldiers to just protesting the deaths of random people:

“Attorney General Greg Stumbo told law enforcement officials in Bardstown that protestors who plan to demonstrate at a funeral Saturday for 10 fire victims could be subject to arrest.

A group from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., plans to come to Bardstown to express their belief that the family’s deaths are God’s punishment for a nation that condones homosexuality. The group has protested at funerals across the country, often those of soldiers killed in Iraq.

In September, a federal judge ruled that peaceful funeral protests are allowed and barred enforcement of a law passed by the Kentucky legislature that would prohibit such protests.

But Stumbo issued an advisory today that reminds law enforcement officials that by law no person may block access to any funeral, engage in violent or threatening behavior, make unreasonable noise or create any other hazardous or offensive condition within 300 feet of a funeral home, memorial service or cemetery during a funeral or burial.”

I’ve been saying for quite a while now that people’s, “First Amendment Rights Don’t Extend To Protesting Funerals,[2]” and I applaud the Kentucky legislature for doing everything they can to protect their citizens from Fred Phelps and Company despite what I think is a misguided ruling from a federal judge. Hopefully, they’re appealing the ruling.

PS: Incidentally, you can thank the ACLU for helping to make this funeral protest possible. They represented “Bart McQueary, a Mercer County man who has protested alongside the church members on three occasions[3]” in this case.

Endnotes:
  1. Fred Phelps and his cult: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/NEWS01/70208052/1008
  2. First Amendment Rights Don’t Extend To Protesting Funerals,: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/archives/week_2006_01_08.PHP#005017
  3. Bart McQueary, a Mercer County man who has protested alongside the church members on three occasions: http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092606phelps.htm

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/new-targets-for-the-funeral-protestors/