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Home Front: Culture Wars
Court allows group to picket soldiers' funerals (Phelper cult)
2007-12-08
A three judge panel of fellow lawyers has given the Phelps power cult a major victory in their ongoing campaign of abuse against bereaved military families:
A federal appeals court Thursday sided with a Kansas woman who believes that God’s hatred of homosexuality requires her to picket funerals for American soldiers holding signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Blew Up the Troops.”

Shirley Phelps-Roper is part of a Topeka, Kan. church that contends God is punishing the United States for permitting homosexuality by killing soldiers. In response to a August 2005 protest by Phelps-Roper and other members of her church at the funeral of Army Spc. Edward Lee Myers in St. Joseph, Mo., the Missouri legislature passed a par of laws that prohibited picketing near a funeral location or procession.

Phelps-Roper sued the state of Missouri and asked for an injunction against the enforcement of the provisions, claiming they were unconstitutional. The federal trial court denied Phelps-Roper her injunction and she appealed that denial to the federal appeals court in St. Louis.

Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit granted Phelps-Roper the injunction, pending a full hearing on the merits of her claim. Typically, an injunction is granted if the petitioner can prove she is likely to prevail on her lawsuit. In this case, the panel found that Missouri’s law was likely unconstitutional because “any interest the state has in protecting funeral mourners from unwanted speech is outweighed by the First Amendment right to free speech.”

The matter will now return to the federal trial court in Kansas City for a full hearing on the merits of Phelps-RoperÂ’s suit. In the meantime, she and members of her church can resume picketing military funerals.
The Phelps gang is not a church, it is a lawyer power-cult, using insult and abuse as their symbols of status and dominance. Fred himself is a disbarred lawyer, and 9 of his 13 children are lawyers. At least two of them are employed by the Kansas Department of Corrections.
As an aside, a visit to the church's website reveals that the church doesn't simply show up funerals. Upcoming targets include Billy Joel (and not for continuing to release greatest hits packages), Ozzy Osbourne, R. Kelly, Mannheim Steamroller(!) and, for some unspecified reason, the University of Kansas basketball game against Ohio University.
A steamroller is what we need for the next Phelps demonstration.

The gay activist group Log Cabin Republicans has some very interesting dirt on Mr. Phelps and some of his disreputable associates:

Al Gore with Fred Phelps, Jr.
"Fred Phelps, Jr. (left) and Al Gore (center) Fundraiser at Phelps Home Topeka, Kansas"

-Fred Phelps was a Gore delegate at the 1988 Demo convention

-Phelps ran for governor in the Demo primary in 1990.

-Phelps hosted a fund-raiser for Gore at his son's Topeka home in 1989.

-Gore invited Phelps to both the 1993 and 1997 Clinton inaugurations

Inconvenient truth, anyone?
Posted by:Angique Gonque2974

#20  eLarson, Hard to do. Topeka is the asshole of Kansas - they blend right in.

What P2K said. And yes, thank you Patriot Guard/Riders et al.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2007-12-08 23:41  

#19  Doubtful. The RICO-tactic was successful because it was a combination of creative lawyering by well-funded groups and a sympathetic legal system.

The chances of a non-sympathetic group getting the same treament as these whack-jobs is nil.

anyone who's paid the slightest attention to Federal court cases would agree it ain't fair.. but whoever suffers the belief that our courts dispense fairness still looks for quarters underneath their pillows.
Posted by: Red Dawg   2007-12-08 22:26  

#18  Remember the Randall Terry rescue missions at abortion clinics? They were arrested and tried under RICO (IIRC). With this decision I believe you will now see more protest

Doubtful. The RICO-tactic was successful because it was a combination of creative lawyering by well-funded groups and a sympathetic legal system.

The chances of a non-sympathetic group getting the same treament as these whack-jobs is nil.
Posted by: Pappy   2007-12-08 21:52  

#17  I can here Algore complaining that you noticed:
"Hey, I cancelled the ChiCom invitations....you people just won't be satisfied, will you? Excelsior!"
Posted by: Frank G   2007-12-08 16:34  

#16  Gore invited Phelps to both the 1993 and 1997 Clinton inaugurations

wow! Can you imagine if that had been Cheney?
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611   2007-12-08 16:24  

#15  Sunna-of-Algore? Thisn a family blog!
Posted by: Eohippus Slilet8185   2007-12-08 16:01  

#14  Apparently, the Ninth Circus Court has extended its franchise to the Eighth.

No one is stopping Phelps and his moron associates from marching down Main Street. A funeral is essentially a private function, even though they are held outside. I'm quite OK with "You can do whatever you want. You just can't do it here" as a legal principle.

Posted by: SteveS   2007-12-08 15:23  

#13  OK, so can the KKK go to black people's funerals and hold up signs and chant saying "All Niggers Must Die"?

Apparently so.

THe courts have lost their mind - this is akin to yelling Fire in a theater, and a justifiable limit on free speech.

Posted by: OldSpook   2007-12-08 14:46  

#12  No one is paying attention to Phelps. But legally, his action and the federal appeals decision has set a precedent that will work both ways. Remember the Randall Terry rescue missions at abortion clinics? They were arrested and tried under RICO (IIRC). With this decision I believe you will now see more protest sympathetic to conservative and right positions that have been on hold for a while.
Posted by: Jack is Back!   2007-12-08 13:40  

#11  The nutjobs do have a right to free speech and the Mo law is on the face of it a violation of the first amendment. But having the right to say something doesn't absolve you from the consequences of having said it. I can call you a son-of-an-algore and have a first amendment right to do so. The 1st doesn't prevent me from getting a broken nose however.
Posted by: Pliny Cheaper4459   2007-12-08 12:34  

#10  What the 'court' and the 'lawyers' forget is that they derive their powers from the consent of the governed. That when they become destructive of those rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. That doesn't necessarily take the form of open rebellion. It can simply be their choice to be removed from the rituals of the legal profession. Case in point. The legal professionals uses the term vigilantism to describe what happens when their system fails the people, because they consider it a threat to their POWER, not justice.

Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose. The Phelps are swinging hard and making contact. They deny others their right of free and peaceful assemble and the right to associate.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-12-08 12:21  

#9  Do Phelps' whelps have a church building somewhere in Kansas? Just curious what would happen if people sat outside of it all the time picketing their idiocy. Or maybe just videotaping the people who go in and out.
Posted by: eLarson   2007-12-08 10:11  

#8  Judges are becoming the new dictatorship. Free speech is great, but as the saying goes, not shouting "FIRE" in a movie theater. There is free speech and expression, then there is harassment. That is what this is, harassment and should be illegal.

The lawyers and judges day is coming, much like Phelps' day is coming.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-12-08 10:02  

#7  A federal appeals court Thursday sided with a Kansas woman who believes that GodÂ’s hatred of homosexuality requires her to picket funerals for American soldiers holding signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Blew Up the Troops.”

Shirley Phelps-Roper is part of a Topeka, Kan. church that contends God is punishing the United States for permitting homosexuality by killing soldiers.

And like most liberal lawyers, they're cowards to the core: If their real beef is homosexuality in america, then why not have the guts to hold up placards that say, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers and Queers” and “God Blew Up the Troops Today. Gay Bars Tomorrow”?

Don't tell me the Gays don't know about this. They Do. Where the hell are they, picketing THESE guys? Why aren't these judges, if they're saying insulting dead soldiers is a constitutional right, striking down PC rule forbidding the criticism of the Gay lifestyle?

They aren't because it's all a damn con game. The dems, Gays, Phelps, and judges are all winking at each other, confident in the media hiding the winks from the rest of us dumbass country bumpkins. Hell, white-power jackasses get thrown in jail for implying less than what phelps is doing.

Damn con game.
Posted by: Ptah   2007-12-08 09:36  

#6  What 4611 said.

Posted by: Thomas Woof   2007-12-08 09:26  

#5  Actually, this is a good thing. Phelps and Family will rot in hell for eternity, but the rest of us can be sure that when we speak out against radical Islam, that CAIR will be cursing Fred Phelps.

Thank God for the Patriot Riders and here's to hoping that Fred and Family are particularly sensitive to hot AND cold.
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611   2007-12-08 07:43  

#4  These f***ing judges....
Posted by: newc   2007-12-08 07:23  

#3  Inflicting the Phelps clan on us is the best evidence God is angry with us about something.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-12-08 07:19  

#2  I agree, Frank, but also take comfort in knowing that Hell is for ever.
Posted by: Bobby   2007-12-08 06:19  

#1  if the police would take a looooong donut break and quit providing protection to these assholes at every protest, this shit would stop toot-sweet
Posted by: Frank G   2007-12-08 05:50  

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