Lawmakers find funeral protests hard to stop

[proud2BlibKansan]

TOPEKA — Lawmakers remain stumped on how to stop Westboro Baptist Church protesters from picketing funerals without treading on the First Amendment. But Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, said today that he thinks he may have found a way.

Lawmakers, he said, can restrict protesting on private property near funerals and mandate that the public sidewalks, streets and parks around them be used only for their intended use.

That means anyone could stop a protest by the Rev. Fred Phelps simply walking down the sidewalk. Phelps and his followers argue that God hates America because it harbors homosexuals and that soldiers’ deaths in Iraq have been divine retribution.

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In a separate proposal, Sen. Karin Brownlee, an Olathe Republican, said she would like to pass a resolution declaring that the protests Westboro Baptist Church brings to soldiers’ funerals around the nation don’t represent Kansas.


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