Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro Baptist Church: Whatever your thoughts are about the "God Hates Fags" mantra of the Westboro Baptist Church, it can't be said that the organization doesn't know its rights and how to defend them in court. Once again the controversial, Kansas-based church has won a legal decision in Missouri. The newest came yesterday when the America Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit affirmed last summer's decision striking down the City of Manchester's funeral protest ordinance. In so doing, the court reaffirmed that peaceful pickets on world sidewalks near funerals are entitled to the protection of the 1st Amendment. In recent years Westboro Baptist Church has taken to protesting outside military funerals under their opinion that God is punishing America. Soldiers for their nation tolerance of homosexuality Manchester modeled its ordinance later an Ohio funeral protest statute that was found to be constitutional by a court in 2008. Yesterday's decision disagreed with that conclusion. Manchester's ordinance criminalized speech in a manner the 1st Amendment can't tolerate," said Anthony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, which represented the church. "Allowing speech we find offensive in public forums is one cost of the freedoms that define U.S.A.." Last year a federal court also threw out a Missouri state law restricting protests near funerals.Westboro Baptist Church