Westboro Baptist Church is a hate group in the guise of a Christian church. The group goes to funerals to picket them and target homosexuals with messages of hate. The group has Kansas in a Catch-22 in how to deal with them.
The state is attempting to make a funeral picketing law, but the way it is worded at this time is unconstitutional. It will be back up though in 2008 for a vote according to a story from the The Kansas City Star
religionnewsblog.com reported.
The problem in Kansas is the Kansas Supreme Court refused Wednesday to rule on the constitutionality of the state’s new funeral picketing law.
Because of the ruling the law may be impossible to enforce thus allowing the Westboro Baptist Church to continue it's hateful pickets.
The law, S.B. 244’s, would prohibit protests within 150 feet of a funeral for one hour before and two hours after a service. The measure was approved unanimously by the Legislature this year and signed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. If someone was stopped for the offense they would get a fine.
Chief Justice Kay McFarland wrote: “A ruling on the appropriateness of enforcement of S.B. 244’s (the law’s) substantive provisions is premature. … We have no case or controversy before us on that issue.”
The catch-22 is that until the law takes place no one can file a lawsuit using the law and the law won't take effect under there is a lawsuit pending.
Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt is the main architect of the bill. The congress has to reword the bill so that it is deemed constitutional before the Supreme Court will rule on it.
Scmidt called Morrison’s challenge “circuitous” and said he favored a more direct approach: Ask the court whether the restrictions are legal or not.
“The bottom line is, we’re trying to get an answer to a question, and I’m not sure the question has really been asked,” he said.
Morrison argues that the court would have quickly rejected such a challenge. Ashley Anstaett, Morrison’s spokeswoman, said Morrison tried “the only possible avenue available to give Kansas a funeral picketing law that could be enforced.”
Several other states have passed the funeral picketing laws. All have been because of the Westboro group who picket military funerals saying that their deaths are because the United States' tolerance of homosexuality.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a lawyer and member of the church, said she wasn’t surprised by the ruling. The “no case or controversy” rule is a basic tenet of the law, she said.
“I’m only surprised that they (the court) did what’s right,” she said. “This was a colossal waste of time and resources.”
