Kansas funeral picketing law struck down

[proud2BlibKansan]

Source: KC Star

BY DAVID KLEPPER
The Star’s Topeka Correspondent
TOPEKA | The Kansas Supreme Court today declared the state’s funeral picketing ban invalid, citing legislative legal maneuvering as the reason.

The decision nullifies the law passed by the Legislature last year – and not yet implemented – designed to rein in a Topeka church that protests the funerals of fallen soldiers and others across the country.

Fearing the church could win a legal challenge against the law, lawmakers inserted a so-called “trigger” provision designed to test the law’s validity before it could be implemented.

The provision required the attorney general to seek an advisory opinion from the courts before the law went into effect. The trigger helped persuade lawmakers worried that the state would end up paying the church’s legal fees if the law were struck down.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/526028.html

[drmeow]

1. How about creating "free speech zones"

for picketers at funerals. If Bush can do it at his speeches, why can't they do it at funerals. (a little bit of :sarcasm:)

Get a group of veterans to picket the church on Sundays.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I like the motorcycle guys who drown them out

Best response yet.

[Vidar]

15. Just conveniently withdraw the church's police protection & let the bikers take care of the problem.

[guitar man]

16. and we would

...take care of the problem :evilgrin:

[MuseRider]

2. We are on it.

We want to protect the families yet preserve First Amendment rights.

Funny, the only thing I hear is how they are known for picketing the funerals of soldiers. Still pisses me off to this day that nobody cared to do anything when it was just GLBT funerals.

There is a statement on our website, KansasEqualityCoalition.org.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Yes I was glad to hear the law has been struck down

We agreed to sign on to the appeal in MO. This is about free speech and if we lose that, we have lost our democracy.

I hear you on the soldiers funerals. Phelps has been protesting funerals, mainly of gay people, here for how many years now? But we weren't outraged before he started in on soldiers' funerals. Disgusting.

[MuseRider]

7. Me too

I am so torn sometimes but we have to preserve free speech.

Many many years but we were never able to get anyone to care. I think partly it is because people here ignore him and everything the city tried ended up giving him the much desired attention and costing us millions. Still, I am not willing to let people off the hook. They did nothing before and that is reprehensible.

[Red1]

3. heh

that ole rightwinger phelps...knows his law doesn't he?

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. He's a registered Democrat

Not exactly a right winger. He behaves like one but he is a Dem.

[guitar man]

17. Didn't he get he memo?

The Dixiecrats all went over to the Repuke side years ago....

[Pab Sungenis]

8. Good

then when Fred Phelps kicks it I can go ahead with my plans for the huge "Phelps Funeral Protest and Tailgate Barbecue Party."

[Infinite Hope]

9. Should be banned at funerals. Minnesota's got it right. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. So you oppose free speech?

[Infinite Hope]

12. Nope. But there's a time and a place and a family's private funeral is neither.

Whether intentional or unintentional, when you protest a private funeral of a soldier, you are no longer just protesting the war; you're protesting a soldier who was forced to fight it and forced to die.

[Tesha]

14. So you oppose *SOME PEOPLE'S* free speech *SOME TIMES*.

Doubtless other people oppose your free speech when it's
inconvenient to them as well.

Tesha

[Ian David]

11. I was kind of hoping the law would stand but under a vary narrowly defined standard.

The last thing we need is for Republicans to declare every speech, parade and political rally to be a "Memorial Service" for fallen troops or something like that so that they can bar protesters.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. How about if we show up whenever one of Phelps' brood dies?

A taste of their own vile behavior might be just the ticket.