ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Funeral Protest Bill

Posted on May 1, 2006

Update: Expose the Left has video of CNN’s coverage on this.……and….Fox News O’Reilly Factor coverage too.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Monday, challenging a new Kentucky law that limits protests at funerals.

The law is an an attempt to prevent disruptions at military funerals. The law was aimed at members of the Westboro Baptist ~~Church~~ Cult, who have toured the country protesting military funerals with signs saying such things as, “God Hates Fags”, and “Thank God For Dead Soldiers.” Members of the cult believe the soldiers’ deaths are a sign of God punishing America for tolerating homosexuality.

I believe the First Amendment protects people’s right to peacefully assemble. I find it odd that the ACLU are not protecting the right of those who wish to mourn the fallen to assemble without being harassed by lunatic cultists.

Kentucky should have seen the challenge coming. Similar legislation was opposed by the ACLU in Louisiana and Tennessee.
However, in this case it doesn’t seem to be the cultists that the ACLU are worried about. They claim that it could lead to an innocent bystander being targeted.

Lili S. Lutgens, an attorney for the ACLU in Louisville, said a portion of the law is overly broad in the limitations it places on freedom of speech and on freedom of expression.

“The language is so broad that two people holding a conversation on a sidewalk, if there’s a funeral going on the funeral home, then they’d be in violation,” Lutgens said. “Somebody who was whistling as they walked down the sidewalk, if a funeral was in earshot, then they would also be in violation.”

Yeah right! How ridiculous of an argument can you come up with?

Once again the ACLU are blind to good common sense and decency in favor of some absolutist view on free speech. The laws being presented are not infringing upon their right to expression. They can go 500 to 1,000 feet away and protest all they want. What this legislation is attempting to do is no different than laws that protect political figures from protesters with reasonable buffer zones. It is also odd that the ACLU have fought on the opposite side when those being protested against were abortion clinics. However it isn’t suprising, as we see more and more everyday, that the ACLU are selective in what kind of messages they protect as free speech, and which ones they either ignore or downright fight against.

By the way, how dare I mention this group without mentioning the heroic efforts of Patriot Guard to stop them. A group of patriotic bikers find wherever these creeps are protesting and set up barriers. God bless the Patriot Guards.

Also see: Washington Post
Merri Musings
Rightwing Sparkle

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One Response to “ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Funeral Protest Bill”

kerwin_brown on May 1st, 2006 8:22 pm

This is a precedent that will be used against the pro life movement. More than likely a law already exist to protect funerals as 5 Congress members were arrested for legally protesting Darfur outside the Sudanese embassy. Then again maybe our government believes foreign embassies are more important than our soldiers funerals.