RENWL

A federal judge today dismissed Missouri state legislation barring Fred Phelps and followers from demonstrating within 300 feet of private funeral services.

In a 19-page order, the laws, said the Kansas City-based judge Fernando Gaitan, “could have the effect of criminalizing speech the mourners want to hear, including speech from counter-protesters to plaintiffs’ [the Westboro Church's] message. As the law burdens substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government’s interest, [the law] violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

According to CNN, Phelps, his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, and other church members had protested near the August 2005 funeral of Army Spc. Edward Lee Myers in St. Joseph, Missouri. The married Army Airborne Ranger died while on patrol in Samarra, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee military vehicle. He was 21, and in addition to his wife, he left behind a daughter. He was later buried at Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas.

In response to that protest, Missouri lawmakers passed the “Spc. Edward Lee Myers Law,” criminalizing picketing “in front or about” a funeral location or procession.

Phelps-Roper then went to federal court to ask for a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the statute until its constitutionality could be reviewed. A federal appeals court eventually agreed.

Phelps-Roper called the 8th Circuit court’s decision to strike down the Missouri legislation “awesome.”

“It shows you that it doesn’t matter how many soldiers we have on foreign soil fighting for our rights that if we don’t have some people on our own soil fighting, we don’t have a First Amendment,” she said. “When you see your organic law eroding, history tells you that your destruction is on the way.”

Here’s a PDF copy of the Judge’s Decision:

CNN: Judge: State ban on protests at military funerals unconstitutional