United States District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. issued a ruling yesterday that declared Missouri's 2006 law against protesting at funerals to be unconstitutional because it violates constitutional rights to free speech.
Missouri lawmakers introduced the Spc. Edward Lee Myers Law after members of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church picketed the Army Airborne Ranger's funeral in St. Joseph in 2005. The church members, led by infamously media-hungry pastor Fred Phelps, claim that God's wrath is evidenced through catastrophic events that befall the United States because our country tolerates homosexuality.
When media interest waned over the clan's protests at the funerals of
hate-crime victims like Matthew Shepard, the Phelpses took aim at a new
target: dead war veterans.
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Screw this stupid judge who over turned this! To hell with Fred Phelps. If I protested at funerals and such I would have arrested record and disorderly conduct charges but a loud mouth abusive jerk me off with money gets off and does as he damn well pleases. Screw our justice system.
What about the families right to privacy? Right to free speech is an important right. I support anyones right to protest at state capital or other political venue's. A funeral is NOT the place for protest of any kind. The families who are burying their dead has rights too.
Remove judge Gaitan from the Bench! He is no better than Phelps or Osama Bin Ladin!
By far the best thing to do about Fred Phelps is to ignore him. He has no followers. It's just the same little group of his relatives. The anti-picketing laws are a bad idea because they are unconstitutional. He did not "hijack" the funeral or attack any "Kansas families" physically. (Kansas single people don't need protection, apparently.) The attorneys general were not interested in him when he was picketing only gay funerals.
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