As of yesterday, Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church is suing St. Joseph, MO. St Joseph - as did a lot of towns who were tired of the rude and insensitive nature of Westboro's protests- enacted an ordinance that prohibits protests of funerals for an hour before and an hour after the ceremony.
The appalling part of this, they are using the ACLU to do their work for them.
<"http:/www.stjoenews.net/news/2009/jan/10/westboro-church-sues-city-over-funeral-ordinance/">
From the Saint Joseph NewsPress:
"The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of Westboro Baptist Church, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the city of St. Joseph.At issue is the city’s funeral protest ordinance, enacted after Westboro picketed the August 2005 funeral of St. Joseph’s first soldier to die in Iraq, Spc. Edward Myers. Westboro, based in Topeka, Kan., protested numerous military funerals around the country, saying the deaths are divine punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality.The lawsuit specifically takes issue with Westboro protesters being stymied on July 8, 2006. Police kept the Westboro protesters at a distance of 300 feet from the Word of Life Church for the funeral of Army Pfc. Brian Bradbury, who was killed in Afghanistan."
Their claim is that there were other people there with signs and flags that weren't kept away 300 feet.
Word of Life is a HUGE Christian evangelical church, they must have really appreciated the protest. My guess is
that there weren't enough police to cordon off more than one group and they wanted to keep them separated fearing there might be some sort of major brawl if they didn't.
When Dick Cheney came to town to campaign , protesters were cordoned off from the rest of the public
and kept off the sidewalks in a "freedom zone" ( which kept me from giving Cheney the finger). Where was the ACLU then?
In any case, an ordinance was passed after they were "discriminated against" and they are using this issue
to try and overturn it.
I think the ACLU in most instances does a good service but in this case, they should have let Westboro
file their own suit at their own expense.
Why is St. Joseph the test case? We're a town of ~75,000 people with a single city attorney and no budget for lengthy lawsuits? We're 75 miles from Topeka, Westboro's home base? It's only hour and a half drive for their members to the federal courthouse in Kansas City.
(BTW : We were the first city to be sued by the EPA for dumping raw sewage into the Missouri River.)
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