Why does westboro picket funerals

None of the new laws involves an outright ban on funeral protests, as that would clash with the constitution's first amendment, guaranteeing free speech. Instead, most stipulate that demonstrators must stay a certain distance from a funeral, and limit their protests to an hour before and an hour after the ceremony.

Some laws prohibit the display of "any visual image that conveys fighting words". Similar laws have been passed in the past to stop anti-abortion protests outside private homes or family planning clinics, and have survived supreme court challenges.

The Westboro Baptist church says its constitutional rights are being trampled by the new laws, and claims it is thinking of ways to challenge them. It claims to have conducted 25, pickets since its formation in , almost all of them anti-gay. Mr Phelps first drew national attention when he protested at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay man beaten to death in Wyoming in In , the 6th U.

Strickland The 6th Circuit compared the funeral protest law to the law prohibiting picketing outside private residences upheld by the U. Supreme Court in Frisby v. Schultz In , the 8th U. The appeals court in Phelps-Roper v. Ricketts 8 th Cir. In a related matter, the United States Supreme Court protected the right of the Westboro Baptist Church to engage in lawful protest outside a church in Maryland in Snyder v.

Phelps Albert Snyder sued the Phelpses for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and civil conspiracy. The Fourth U. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed on appeal.

The U. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. As a result of the threat, Arizona passed an emergency bill that banned protests within feet of funerals. Members were outnumbered at the funeral by advocates , who sang Christmas carols and held signs of support for the Edwards family. The high court decided in an decision that the church's actions were protected under free speech. Westboro has picketed numerous military funerals dating before and after Snyder's.

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