ACLU is suing for Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps to picket military funerals

[truthpusher]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643.html

ACLU Sues for Anti-Gay Group That Pickets at Troops' Burials

By Garance Burke

Associated Press

Sunday, July 23, 2006; A02

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.

****

The law bans picketing and protests "in front of or about" any location where a funeral is held, from an hour before it begins until an hour after it ends. Offenders can face fines and jail time.

A number of other state laws and a federal law, signed in May by President Bush, bar such protests within a certain distance of a cemetery or funeral.

In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the Missouri law tries to limit protesters' free speech based on the content of their message. It is asking the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and to issue an injunction to keep it from being enforced, which would allow the group to resume picketing.

****

link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643.html

some recent protest photos

[babylonsister]

1. Ugh. nt

[SammyBlue]

52. The ACLU is correct here.

Fred Phelps has every right to make an ass out of himself under the 1st amendment. Sadly, Fred is right on this account.

[etherealtruth]

59. As despicable as Phelps is ...

I still have to agree with you (and the ACLU)

[kenny blankenship]

2. This will not stop me supporting the ACLU

(but I also hope they lose the case.)

[seemunkee]

3. ..

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. ~Noam Chomsky

[Donnachaidh]

4. while it makes me sick, the ACLU is right..

We can't have free speech being touted for one, and not the others...

What they should do is kick back to the federal law, or better yet, institute *free speech zones* like the BushCabal does to peace protesters.

And make Phelps and company face down armed Swat cops, too. Just like the peace protesters.

[Leopolds Ghost]

61. Unfortunately, all that will do is legitimize the use of free speech zones

"See? We don't just use fences for leftie agitators who we consider beyond the pale (literally). We also use the same tactics to defend America from *right-wing* agitators whose beliefs are beyond the pale!

Unless they're well organized and have a history of doing business in the state..."

[The Witch]

5. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.

Freedom was never just for the popular.

[Biernuts]

8. Guess there's no truth to the saying that there are some things

even lawyers won't do.

The ACLU didn't have to take this case. Phelps and his band of thugs could have hired their own lawyers.

[atommom]

14. Hell, a lot of the Phelpses ARE lawyers.

I understand the principle at stake here, but ... :puke:

[michreject]

21. I think 13 of his 14 kids are attorneys

#14 is Gay.

[Tesha]

31. If you value free speech (as the ACLU does), you would take the case. (NT)

[niallmac]

6. Strange world. I suppose I need to support ACLU in this even though

I despise the insensitivity of Phelps and his kool aid clan.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. This is why I hate the ACLU

Yo, ACLU, having trouble finding a good cause to fight for? Why don't you take a look at some of the federal lawsuits which have gagged good honest people who are trying to protect the public? Why don't you put a call out there and offer your services to people who need defense against powerful lawfirms that are controlling their counties?

Putzs. You might even get bonus points and come up against a political lawfirm that helped get us where we are today.

[China_cat]

11. This is a good cause.

I hate Phelps with a passion that even surpasses what I feel for the Bush administration.

But the ACLU is defending the CONSTITUTION more than Phelps. And that is what they are chartered to do.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. It's time for them to branch out.

They've wasted a lot of time going two steps forward, and two steps back. Time to make some lateral moves.

[Warren Stupidity]

26. What on earth are you talking about?

For example:

ACLU Wins Challenge to North Carolina's Cohabitation Ban (7/20/2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: [e-mail]

911 Dispatcher Lost Her Job Because She Lived With Her Boyfriend "Out Of Wedlock"


BURGAW, NC - The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina today applauded a state court decision declaring the state's 201-year-old ban on cohabitation to be unconstitutional.

The ACLU had filed the case on behalf of Debora Hobbs, an unmarried woman who lost her job as a 911 dispatcher with the Pender County Sheriff's Office simply because she chose to live with her unmarried boyfriend.
http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/discrim/26197prs20060720.html

ACLU Seeks Information on Extent of Bush Administration Spying (7/19/2006)


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [e-mail]

Freedom of Information Act Request Seeks Data on Several New Financial Programs

NEW YORK— In an effort to determine the breadth of the Bush administration’s massive surveillance programs, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with several government agencies seeking details of financial tracking efforts not only with regard to the SWIFT program revealed in June, but also several other financial organizations that ACLU research indicates are likely targets.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/26180prs20060719.html

NYCLU Sues Police Over Wrongful Arrest of Teachers (3/5/2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [e-mail]

NYPD Must Respect Authority of School Officials, Says Group

NEW YORK -- The New York Civil Liberties Union and co-counsel Morrison & Foerster LLP today announced the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of two high school teachers who were arrested, handcuffed and verbally abused by Police Department officers after they questioned the handcuffing of two students who had been involved in a fight.

http://www.aclu.org/crimjustice/gen/24382prs20060305.html

Children Sentenced to Life Without Parole Bring Plea to Human Rights Body (2/22/2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [e-mail]

ACLU Champions Children's Rights With Petition to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

NEW YORK - The national American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Michigan today filed a petition urging the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to rule that sentencing children to mandatory life without the possibility of parole violates the Declaration of the Rights of Man and universal human rights principles.

http://www.aclu.org/crimjustice/sentencing/24237prs20060222.html

ACLU of New Mexico Files Lawsuit Over Jail Guard's Sexual Abuse of Female Prisoners (1/25/2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: [e-mail]

ALBUQUERQUE, NM - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico today filed claims of sexual abuse and 'cruel and unusual punishment' against a McKinley County detention officer, Brian Orr, on behalf of two female inmates from Wyoming.

http://www.aclu.org/prison/women/23942prs20060125.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

57. I'd like to see them branch out to protect members of the public against

city hall. This is tougher than it looks. Fighting City Hall these days means fighting, not just city hall, but the local business groups which have infiltrated city hall. These days, the city council boards look more like real estate committees, than neutral government bodies. Also, protecting the interest of the public is a tough thing to do because you have to redefine the parameters of what constitutes the public. Today, developers with big bucks curry public support by claiming that they are fighting against city hall to protect property rights for the public, but the reality is that members of the public rarely use the kind of property rulings that developers rely on to mow over & develop acres of land. In the end, the city circumvents everything anyways by making two laws, one for developers, and another for a small property owner. This is contrary to the fourteenth Amendment. But whose going to challenge it?

We desperately need an ACLU that will look at the evolution of local government, and give the public some relief against developers and against business leaders who continually abuse their position by breaching their fiduciary responsibility to the public.

[Leopolds Ghost]

64. Speaking of Real Estate Development...

What's scary is many Planing and Public Administration Journals advocate (and justify tactics such as eminent domain and restriction on freedom of assembly on the basis of) a broad, reworked definition of individual rights, in which the individual has the right ** NOT TO BE DISTURBED OR MADE UNCOMFORTABLE ** by the actions of others. Be they neighbors or passerby on the public square. Anti-smoking ordinances are widely considered "the most obvious and easiest to justify example" of this line of thinking, according to one planning text. And, of course zoning, which exists, first and foremost (according to the foundation which helped institute the concept, the Urban Land Institute) to "protect property values, thereby ensuring an increased supply of revenue for the municipality." Doing so by protecting the citizen from unwanted experiences, of course. Private property and surrounding public space as a secure world, hermetically sealed from undesirables and undesirable behavior, whether or not it is actually injurious (it's injurious to property values, whereas eminent domain increases ratables for a municipality, and by their reading of the constitution, that's enough.) This is a serious movement in planning and administration circles that is restricting our freedom of assembly and expression. Is the ACLU doing anything about it?

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Do you somehow think that the ACLU only takes on one case?

They are protecting 1st amendment rights in this case along with the many other cases they are working on at the same time. I'm amazed that you 'hate the ACLU'. They are the last defense of our rights, there for all of us, even the hideous phelps clan.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. There are just so, SO many other good causes they could be fighting.

Why this one and why now? Let the bastards stew for a while.

[Warren Stupidity]

28. Gee perhaps because the * administration has

been screwing with the 1st amendment right to protest since the day they took office? Perhaps that's why the ACLU is interested in fighting this bullshit.

It is exactly the free speech rights of the vile Phelps clan that have to be protected. If the state is allowed to supress their right to protest then there is no longer a barrier to the state supressing your right to protest. That you cannot see this is mystifying.

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. You mean they can't find an abortion clinic to protect?

Surely you jest?

[Warren Stupidity]

30. What?

The ACLU does not offer protection services, it offers legal services to support our constitutional rights. The ACLU has gone to battle in the courts many times in defense of reproductive rights, and will continue to do so. You are way off base here.

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. hahahahaha!

You know, if I were in the business of entertainment, I'd write a spoof about how the ACLU is so intent on protecting Free Speech that it undermines so many other freedoms. Too close to the trees to see the forest. Did it ever occur to them that the ultimate free speech is to have a respectful silence at your own funeral, especially when you were willing to go out and die for that freedom? Why is one freedom more important than the other? Especially in this case.

I get into these fights with my siblings all the time in respect to religion. They're so busy trying to protect my young sister's right-wing religious beliefs, and her right to raise her children into believing we're all going to hell because we're not part of her parish, that they've forgotten that they're supressing my right to practice my religion in the way I feel most comfortable. You see, the ACLU isn't protecting anything at all, on my behalf. It's just busy screwing and unscrewing the same bolt and nut.

[Tesha]

35. The ACLU is working on that too.

You know they are participating in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of
Northern New England, right? A case that went all the way to the
United States Supreme Court just this year?

Tesha

[The Backlash Cometh]

42. You'd think after twenty years we'd have some progress made,

but we don't. I wonder why their cases don't stick?

[Dark]

70. Yea, cause I'm sure Bush is responsible for this law.

:eyes:

[Tesha]

33. This isn't the only thing the ACLU is doing.

They're also defending many of the folks who have been swept
up in the legal system as a result of being unwilling to stay in
Bush's "Free Speech Zones".

Free speech is one of our most-fundamental rights. And we all
must stand together in its defense, even when the speaker is
odious.

Tesha

[The Backlash Cometh]

49. My point is that in this case, one right isn't more important than the

other. This is about one man's individual right to Free Speech (having silence at his funeral)over another man's individual right to use the funeral for his own political soapbox.

Seems to me that the private cemetery should impose the rules of decorum, and allow the individual buried in the cemetery, the same treatment that everybody else in the cemetery is given.

[Fleshdancer]

44. What the ACLU is working on:

http://www.aclu.org/newsroom/viewallpressreleases_21660.html
This is just page 1 out of 10:

ACLU Raises Spying Issue at BellSouth Shareholder Meeting on AT&T Merger (07/21/2006)
ATLANTA -- BellSouth's proposed merger with AT&T should be approached with great caution because of AT&T's entanglements with illegal NSA spying, the American Civil Liberties Union said at a BellSouth shareholders meeting held here today to consider the merger.

ACLU Applauds Senate Renewal of Voting Rights Act, Says Clean and Swift Vote Does Historic Law Justice (07/20/2006)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union applauded the Senate’s swift reauthorization today of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights law first passed in 1965 to prevent voting discrimination. The legislation passed unanimously without any damaging or weakening amendments on a vote of 98 to 0. The measure now heads to the president for his signature.

ACLU Wins Challenge to North Carolina's Cohabitation Ban (07/20/2006)
BURGAW, NC - The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina today applauded a state court decision declaring the state's 201-year-old ban on cohabitation to be unconstitutional.

Student Rights: Zero Tolerance Policies, Equal Protection and Racial Profiling (07/20/2006)
MIAMI; The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida’s Greater Miami Chapter presents the last episode of this season’s informative ;FreedomWatch; series, airing on Miami-Dade;s Cable-TAP channel. The show, which is currently running, takes a look at “zero-tolerance” policies aimed at students and asks the question: Do Zero Tolerance Policies Provide Equal Protection -- or are these policies based on Racial Profiling?

ACLU Urges House Intelligence Committee to Protect Fourth Amendment, Says FISA Must Not Be Gutted in the Name of "Modernization" (07/19/2006)
WASHINGTON - As the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence met to consider the "modernization" of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the American Civil Liberties Union urged members of the panel to reject attempts to further erode the Fourth Amendment protections of ordinary Americans. That law has been constantly violated since President Bush in 2001 authorized the warrantless wiretapping and data-mining of Americans by the National Security Agency.

ACLU Applauds Senate Judiciary Vote on Voting Rights Act, Urges Senate to Pass a Clean Renewal Without Weakening Amendments (07/19/2006)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urged the Senate to quickly take up and pass a “clean,” unamended version Voting Rights Act today after the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the landmark legislation by a vote of 18-0, with no weakening amendments. The Voting Rights Act overwhelmingly passed the House last week, also without any damaging amendments.

ACLU of Colorado Challenges Abuse of Prisoners in Garfield County Jail (07/19/2006)
DENVER, CO -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a sweeping class action lawsuit today in federal court on behalf of prisoners in the Garfield County Jail who have been subjected to widespread excessive force by deputies’ misuse and abuse of pepperball guns, restraint chairs, Tasers, pepper spray, and electroshock belts.

ACLU Seeks Information on Extent of Bush Administration Spying (07/19/2006)
NEW YORK— In an effort to determine the breadth of the Bush administration’s massive surveillance programs, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with several government agencies seeking details of financial tracking efforts not only with regard to the SWIFT program revealed in June, but also several other financial organizations that ACLU research indicates are likely targets.

ACLU Slams Bush's Block of Justice Department Inquiry on NSA Spying (07/19/2006)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today strongly rebuked President Bush for his direct involvement with the suspension of an investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) into the warrantless surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Best Interests of Children Triumph Over Politics in Missouri (07/19/2006)
KANSAS CITY, MO -- The American Civil Liberties Union and PROMO, Missouri’s statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality organization, are very pleased with the new rule issued by the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) allowing lesbian and gay people to be considered as foster parents. DSS has rightly put the interests of children ahead of politics. The foster care system is in crisis, with thousands of foster children languishing in institutional and group facilities due to a severe shortage in foster homes. The new rule is a victory for the nearly 2,000 foster children in Missouri.

Gonzales Says CIA Detainees Protected by Geneva Conventions; Reversal Follows Similar Decision by the Department of Defense (07/19/2006)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed testimony by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies, "without exception," to all detainees held by the government- including detainees held by the Central Intelligence Agency. That announcement, made Tuesday, follows last week’s announcement by the Department of Defense that Common Article 3 applies to all detainees held by the Defense Department.

House Votes to Bar Federal Courts from Hearing Pledge of Allegiance Cases; ACLU Says Bill Compromises Independent Judiciary (07/19/2006)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union expressed its strong disapproval as the House passed a controversial measure to deny judicial review on certain First Amendment issues. H.R. 2389, or the “Pledge Protection Act of 2005,” would strip jurisdiction from all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, in any First Amendment case involving the Pledge of Allegiance. It is the latest of several similar politically motivated measures that would interfere with America’s independent judiciary and would jeopardize access to fair and impartial courts. It passed the House on a vote of 260 to 167.

NYCLU Criticizes Proposal to Expand NYPD Control Over Protest Activity (07/19/2006)
NEW YORK -- The New York Civil Liberties Union today criticized a New York City Police Department plan to expand police control over protest activity, pledging to call on the New York City Council to block the proposed regulations if the plan is not abandoned.

ACLU Applauds Decision Allowing Women Prisoners in Missouri to Access Abortion Care (07/18/2006)
ST. LOUIS, MO - The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded a decision by a district court in Missouri allowing women prisoners in the state to access timely, safe, and legal abortion care.

ACLU Applauds House for Rejecting Discriminatory Constitutional Amendment (07/18/2006)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the House of Representatives as it joined the Senate in overwhelmingly rejecting a discriminatory proposal to amend the Constitution to deny marriage protections to gay and lesbian couples and their children. Today’s move follows a similar rejection by both houses of Congress in 2004, and by the Senate last month.

ACLU Urges House to Reject Discriminatory Constitutional Amendment, Notes Senate Failed to Limit Debate on Measure in June (07/18/2006)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the House of Representatives to reject a discriminatory proposal to amend the Constitution to deny marriage protections to gay and lesbian couples and their children. Both houses of Congress overwhelmingly rejected an identical proposal in 2004, and the Senate in June failed to limit debate on the measure, effectively killing it. The House is expected to consider the amendment later today.

Homeland Security Gave Pentagon Information on Anti-War Student Groups in California (07/18/2006)
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Department of Homeland Security provided the Pentagon with information on anti-war protests at University of California campuses last year, according to the most recent government documents released to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Rights Body Harshly Criticizes U.S. Human Rights Record (07/18/2006)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -- A United Nations human rights body expressed grave concerns today about the record of human rights in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union with a delegation of 10 and working with a broad coalition of other groups is in Geneva to monitor the examination of the United States the U.N. Human Rights Committee (HRC).

ACLU of Florida Says Veterans for Peace to Be Granted Equal Access With Military Recruiters in Pinellas County Schools (07/17/2006)
LARGO, FL – The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida announced today that the Pinellas School District has agreed to allow Veterans for Peace the same access to students that military recruiters receive, for the purpose of presenting alternative career information.

ACLU of Wisconsin Says Taser Death Demonstrates Need to Restrict Police Use of Potentially Lethal Weapons (07/17/2006)
MILWAUKEE, WI - The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin today demanded that the Town of Mukwonago police and other Wisconsin police agencies adhere to professional standards when deploying and using stun guns

[The Backlash Cometh]

50. Without reading them each and every one, I bet the ones that won't

present any resistance are the ones that present a conflict between the public versus the government; or the individual versus the government. The protest at the cemetary, however, is a conflict between a dead man's right to a respectful burial, like everybody else was given in the same cemetary, versus a blowhard's right to use that funeral as a symbolic protest.

[Warren Stupidity]

62. Actually it is about the right to protest anything in public.

Anything at all. Even things you find repulsive. But you aren't much interested in what the ACLU actually does, or what the issue actually is here, your mind is made up and that is that.

[The Backlash Cometh]

65. In this particular case, it is.

[ugarte]

9. The ACLU protects the First Amendment...period...

They have defended the First Amendment rights of Nazis and other many other fringe groups.

[michreject]

24. But they refuse to fight for the 2nd.....eom

[adwon]

34. They also don't cover the other 25

What's your point?

[Tesha]

38. Actually, the ACLU cares a lot about...

Actually, the ACLU cares a lot about the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments
as well, and would probably defend the 2nd amendment as well but that
turf is pretty well covered by another group. ;-)

Tesha

[michreject]

40. The ACLU defines the 2nd as a collective right

The NRA defines the 2nd as an individual right. It would be nice to get this discrepancy settled once and for all.

[Tesha]

37. There's another group that has that turf covered.

ACLU has occasionally offered to help cases that involve gun rights
but their offers are often rebuffed, perhaps because the "gun rights"
people tend to be right wing people who have more faith in the NRA
than the ACLU.

Occasionally, that faith is misplaced, of course.

Tesha

[sam sarrha]

10. why doesnt someone just throw a 5 gallon bucket of Rancid Piss on them..

every time they show up,..just speaking methaphorically ,i know its wrong but it sounds sooooo right..or how come child welfare hasnt taken those poor kids away fron those mentally ill people, isnt what they are doing a hate crime..

i think the ACLU taking this to court will settle it.. this is a hate crime plane and simple. we need to have protection 'from' religion..

[originalpckelly]

13. I hope they win. They are truly evil people...

but free speech is not meant for those who we enjoy, but those we hate.

[jsamuel]

15. "I will fight to the death for your right to speak, even if I do not agree

with what you speak."

[SmokingJacket]

16. I'm no fan of the Phelpses, to say the least. But

seems to me this whole "picketing funerals" thing is a set-up. They're doing it for attention -- or maybe someone's paying them to, to give the gov a good reason to clamp down on protests in general. I don't know what's going on, but the whole thing stinks.

[blonndee]

17. I think I just caught a whiff of that stink...

I believe you are on to something there.

[jmowreader]

27. Actually, it's Fred Phelps' 2006 fundraiser

One of Fred's most reliable sources of income is filing lawsuits against people who go up against him. He tends to win them because his family is about 95 percent law school graduates--Fred himself used to be a lawyer, although he's turned in his license--and they know exactly what they're doing in court.

[SmokingJacket]

39. The Phelpses are the world's biggest sleaze bags.

I only wish I was religious, because then I'd have the satisfaction of believing they will all burn in hell.

[jmowreader]

55. I'm not religious either

But I chuckle sometimes to think that Fred Phelps is gonna die real soon now, become worm food, and all his hatred will have been for nothing.

I figure, though, that if there IS a hell, Phelps is first in line to go there. This is one of the most judgmental sumbitches who ever walked the soil; there has got to be something in the scriptures that says if you try playing God by consigning millions of people to hell, God doesn't want you around him when you die.

Besides, Phelps is no Christian. To me, a Christian follows the teachings of Jesus Christ; Phelps works exclusively out of the OT, which predates Jesus.

[tinfoil tiaras]

18. Those pictures are mildly disturbing to say the least...

now I know why I hate driving though Kansas (as well as it being boring as hell...no offence).

[Avalux]

20. It's all about the Constitution.

Even though what Phelps does is dispicable and none of us agree, he has a right to do it under the Constitution. I don't have to like it, but it's appropriate for the ACLU to sue.

[michreject]

23. His brood was at the funeral I was at yesterday

I ride with the Patriot Guard. We drowned out his clans speeches. We turn our back to them.

[porphyrian]

25. Good, that's what they're supposed to do.

They don't endorse the message, just their right to say it.

[bluestateguy]

32. ACLU's "do-gooder" attitude will be the death of them

If these people, and Limbaugh (another ACLU client) had their way the ACLU would be shut down and declared a terrorist organization. I'm still waiting for Limbaugh's official thank you to the ACLU and an apology from him for all of the years of invective he hurled at them.

[Ioo]

36. MORE POWER TO THEM - Rights are rights, even if you do not agree

Hey I think these people can go to hell, and will I am sure. But the ACLU is right that the MO law DOES effect their rights. I think these people are sick, but...

I also think that this is a PR nightmare to the right-wingers that want to use the ACLU as a whipping boy of the lebral law.

[madmusic]

43. I hate PhelpsCo

That's why I'm glad the ACLU is on it.

[sueragingroz]

45. Is it my imagination.. or

Do all of these folks look heavily medicated?

[KittyWampus]

46. These People Are Harassing Funeral Goers. They Should Be Arrested

for harassment.

[Eric J in MN]

53. There are pre-existing laws against harrassment.

If they follow around a mourner shouting at him, they can get arrested.

This law goes beyond harrassment to trying to protect a mourner from seeing a disturbing sign.

Because the law is so broad, protestors who didn't even know that a funeral was being held in a church nearby could be arrested.

[cigsandcoffee]

47. Boy, do they ever love bad publicity.

Illinois Nazis, Rush Limbaugh, and Phelp's gang of moronic jagoffs.

[Eric J in MN]

54. They aren't seeking bad publicity, like PETA does.

It's just that if the ACLU doesn't protect unpopular speech, who will?

Protestors who don't even know that there is a funeral in a nearby church can get arrested under this law.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

48. For once, I think the ACLU are wrong.

Not because of Phelp's message, which is clearly irrelevant, but because of the means of delivery.

I think that standing around at a funeral yelling hostilely and waving placards should be illegal on the grounds that it's harrassement, even if the placards are blank and the yells are wordless.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean that I'm allowed to shoot you provided I scratch a message on the bullet first.

[Warren Stupidity]

63. Do you actually think that analogy is at all applicable?

"Freedom of speech doesn't mean that I'm allowed to shoot you provided I scratch a message on the bullet first."

The vile Phelps clan is not shooting or otherwise assaulting anyone. They are protesting in the most traditional manner, by carrying their vile signs and shouting their vile messages. They are protesting on public property. That is the most basic example of the right to protest.

[Eric J in MN]

51. .Protestors can get arrested because there happens to be a funeral service

...in a church they didn't even know about it under this law.

When Fred Phelps loses rigtht to free speech, so will the rest of us

[democracyindanger]

56. Ahem. See: Free Speech Zones

Remember why Clinton started those? To keep fundies from interfering with abortion clinic access. Now "Free Speech" zones are the same thing that protect that coward Bush from ever seeing a single protestor.

So just as an exercise, look into the distant future, when a certain person passes on due to natural causes. You want to get out to the cemetary and participate in reminding the world that he was a war criminal, a rich boy who forever tarnished America, ad infinitum.

But too bad his (unconfirmed) military service warrants a military funeral. Because of the law, you're shoved out of view, and the sumbitch gets the serene, dignified funeral he never deserved.

Like the saying goes, the cure for free speech is more free speech.

[dorkulon]

58. Kudos to ACLU for sticking to principle.

They're for free speech, whether or not they agree with it. Me too. It is the autoritarian, speech-squelching aspect of the Right that I detest the most. Everyone has a right to speak out, no matter how stupid they are.

[Leopolds Ghost]

60. Kudos to ACLU, and Kudos to the Rolling Thunder guys for counterprotesting

And showing us how its done in America. FOR ONCE those POW-MIA obsesed biker dudes are fighting a worthy cause, providing a reasonably peaceful buffer between military funerals and the Phelps clan.

(I shudder to think how they'd treat leftist protestors in the same situation, however, and how the courts would treat it... and that's the sad part.)

Then again, the weekly vigil outside Walter Reed has been relatively peaceful. Though in such a liberal part of DC there normally more Rolling Thunder protest warriors and freepers than there are actual people at the vigil, which is sad. (look at me talking, I've only gone to the vigil once.)

[zcflint09]

66. ACLU is an organization devoted to protecting rights

This is to be expected from an organization of that nature. I still support the ACLU but obviously do not support the Phelps group, however, they have the right to protest on public property. Once we decide what's appropriate for public protest is where we go even further downhill.

[6000eliot]

67. I'm gay and I loathe these idiots,

but the ACLU is correct in this case. Their political speech is protected by the First Amendment.

[varun]

68. Maybe Americans will see what hatred religious (some) people have for gays

Let Phelps protest...this will only portray the religious right in bad light.

[Dark]

69. FUCK the ACLU.

But this is a perfect example why. Not only do they pick the most disgusting defendant they can, but the most indefensible position.

Sorry, but protesting at a funeral violates free speech, imo. He can say whatever he wants, just not wherever or whenever he wants.

[dsc]

71. If having peaceful quiet funerals were such obvious rights

then these laws would have been passed when he was targetting gays. The ACLU is correct on this. Phelps has a right to be a tasteless asshole.