White House responds to petitions, condemns Westboro protests
Source: The Hill
The White House on Wednesday responded to online petitions over the Westboro Baptist Church, which conducts anti-gay protests at military funerals, declining to designate the organization a “hate group” but calling their activities “reprehensible.”
Two petitions on the We the People website, one which called for investigating the controversial church’s tax-exempt status and another asking the Obama administration to label the church a hate group, both passed the 100,000 threshold to get an official response.
The hate group petition had 367,180 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
"To the extent that these petitions request a particular law enforcement or adjudicatory action, we cannot issue a comment," the White House's statement said. "In addition, as a matter of practice, the federal government doesn't maintain a list of hate groups."
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/309097-white-house-responds-to-we-the-people-petitions-on-westboro-baptist-church