Court backs church’s stay on picketing law

[unhappycamper]

Court backs church’s stay on picketing law
By David Twiddy - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 6, 2007 20:44:46 EST

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A federal appeals court said Thursday that a Missouri law limiting protests near funerals should have been put on hold while a judge determines whether it’s constitutional.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis threw out a district court judge’s decision denying the request for a temporary injunction of the law from a Kansas church that regularly protests at service members’ funerals.

Missouri legislators passed the law last year in response to pickets of service members’ funerals by members of Westboro Baptist Church. The Topeka, Kan., church claims God allows troops to be killed as punishment on the nation for tolerating homosexuality.

Church member Shirley Phelps-Roper filed suit in July 2006, seeking to have the statute declared an unconstitutional infringement on her First Amendment right of free speech. She also sought preliminary and permanent injunctions barring Gov. Matt Blunt from enforcing the law.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan said Phelps-Roper had failed to show that she had a strong probability of winning the overall lawsuit and that she would be irreparably harmed if the protest ban continues to be enforced.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_funeralprotests_071206w/