Court strikes down law preventing funeral protests

The plaintiff, Westboro Baptist Church, has protested in Columbia.

By Allison Prang

Published Aug. 27, 2010

A state law prohibiting protests at funerals was struck down last week by a federal judge in a ruling seen as victory for a controversial church group.

The outcome was in favor of plaintiff Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. WBC protests the funerals of veterans, saying the United States is involved in war in the Middle East because it supports homosexuality.

The church has protested in Columbia, picketing a 2009 performance of "The Laramie Project” at Stephens College. The play was a tribute to a gay man slain in Wyoming. Phelps-Roper’s case was filed in July 2006 by the American Civil Liberties Union.

According to a news release from the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, the funeral protest statute law was passed when members of the church started picketing near military funerals in 2005. Members had been protesting outside funerals since 1993.

“Lots of states passed laws targeting different groups of protestors and their protests,” said Anthony Rothert, legal director for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “Missouri went out of its way to create a very broad law that would have very detrimental effects (for protestors).”

The law, formerly known as the “Spc. Edward Lee Myers’ Law,” made it illegal for anyone in the state of Missouri to protest at funerals within one hour of the start or conclusion of a funeral. The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Charlie Shields, R-Kansas City.

Shields' office supported the law in a written statement.

According to the statement, support for the law grew after a protest by the WBC at the funeral of Edward Lee Myers, a specialist with the U.S. Army who was killed in action in 2005.

Shields’ office did not return e-mail requests for comment.

Phelps-Roper, the mother of 11 children, said Missouri police were conspiring with the state government to keep WBC from protesting. She said they put together a letter explaining that she would be arrested and her children would be taken in by Child Protective Services if she and her children were seen protesting at funerals.

“They threatened us in a way that we just weren’t going to protest,” Phelps-Roper said. “So the only option if we’re going to do our duty to God and our fellow man was to file our lawsuit. We’re only interested in one thing with that lawsuit -- that the government of Missouri obey the law. That’s what we ask for.”

Rothert said the content of an organization’s speech does not matter to the ACLU.

“When there is a clear-cut case where the First Amendment is violated, we will always support someone, no matter for what cause,” Rothert said.

State Rep. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, said he was not in office at the time the bill was passed and therefore did not vote on the legislation.

“I think protesting at funerals is absolutely horrible and a really heartless and terrible thing to do,” Webber said. “But I also think with the First Amendment and the freedom of speech, the government shouldn’t be regulating what people say.”