A New Low

I want to have faith in people.

I want to believe that there is a line that even the looniest of Lefties won't cross, a line that defines human decency.

I hoped that the wackos at the ACLU wouldn't touch this one because it is so outrageous. It definitely falls in the "You can't be serious" category.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.

The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians.

Missouri lawmakers were spurred to action after members of the church protested in St. Joseph, Mo., last August at the funeral of Army Spec. Edward L. Myers.

The law bans picketing and protests "in front of or about" any location where a funeral is held, from an hour before it begins until an hour after it ends. Offenders can face fines and jail time.

A number of other state laws and a federal law, signed in May by President Bush, bar such protests within a certain distance of a cemetery or funeral.

In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the Missouri law tries to limit protesters' free speech based on the content of their message. It is asking the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and to issue an injunction to keep it from being enforced, which would allow the group to resume picketing.

"I told the nation, as each state went after these laws, that if the day came that they got in our way, that we would sue them," said Phelps's daughter Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the church in Topeka, Kan. "At this hour, the wrath of God is pouring out on this country."

I bet John Madison and the other founding fathers are rolling over in their graves.

There are limits to free speech.

The ACLU's claim that the protesters' rights are being infringed upon solely because of the content of their message is ludicrous.

Yes, most people are disgusted by Phelps and find his message offensive.

But it's not his message that's being targeted by the Missouri law.

The law specifically "bans picketing and protests 'in front of or about' any location where a funeral is held, from an hour before it begins until an hour after it ends."

That means ANY picketing and protests which would disrupt a funeral. The law isn't aimed just at Phelps. It's intended to protect the mourners and grant them the proper respect that the funeral deserves.

I don't see how the ACLU lawyers think they can prove that the law is unconstitutional. Phelps can still picket. He can say what he wants. He just can't disrupt funerals when he's exercising his free speech rights.

Phelps and his band of nutjobs don't have the right to infringe on the rights of the mourners to carry out a funeral with dignity and solemnity.

The mourners have a right not to be harassed.

Under the Missouri law, Phelps' right to free speech remains intact. He just has to be in accordance with the limits set by the law and stay the prescribed time and distance away from funerals when he's promulgating his poison. That's reasonable.

I think Phelps is a real sicko. This guy calls himself a Baptist, yet his behavior is about as unchristian as one can imagine.

He is hateful and heartless. His soul is blackened.

Phelps has been waiting for a law that he could challenge. He's wanted a court fight, anything to draw attention to his vicious demonstrations.

The ACLU, for its part, has been waiting, too. It's complicit in Phelps' cruelty by filing the lawsuit.

It's a new low for the ACLU. And that's saying a lot.