COURT DATE

After Demonstrating At Lesbian Soldier’s Funeral, Westboro Baptists Lose Legal Battle

Last week, the Phelps clan sunk to new lows as the Westboro Baptist Church protested the funeral of Donna Johnson, a married lesbian soldier who was killed in a bombing in Afghanistan. Now the WBC has lost its appeal against a Missouri statute limiting protests at funerals.

Ain’t karma a bitch?

On Tuesday, a panel of federal judges in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Manchester, MO, law that bans protests within 300 years yards of a funeral or memorial service an hour before or after the ceremony. Reversing an earlier decision which had found the measure unconstitutional, the judges ruled that demonstrators had other venues in which to share their views.

“[The court] weighed the benefits of the First Amendment and the rights of families who were grieving the loss of family members who were, for the most part, members of the military,” said prosecutor Patrick R Gunn.

The WBC loves to demonstrate outside military funerals—they say their deaths are proof of God’s hatred of America tolerating homosexuality.  Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense to us either.

 

 

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