ACLU Protects Funeral Protesters
Posted on March 14, 2006
Hat tip: Conservative Thinking
If you haven’t heard about the Westboro Baptist Church Hate Cult, Dread Pundit Bluto can fill you in. In short, they believe that God is punishing America for our arrogance and our tolerance of gays. They feel that the best place to express their hate is picketing the funerals of veterans killed in the War on Terror with signs saying such things as “God Hates Fags”, and “Thank God For Dead Soldiers.” Of course this kind of disrespect is bound to anger quite a few folks. In reaction some states are creating laws to limit these protests with buffer zones. While most reasonable folks can see the common sense in this, the American Civil Liberties Union are calling it Unconstitutional.
In Tennessee the Senate just passed a bill that requires a 500-foot buffer zone between a funeral, burial or funeral procession and its protesters. Those that come closer than 500 feet could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, punishable up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. Other states as nearby as Kentucky and Missouri agree. Those states have already passed new laws limiting protests at funerals.
Of course the ACLU are claiming the bill is unconstitutional.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been lobbying against Black’s bill, saying the measure violates Americans’ First Amendment rights.
“Even speech that is cruel, distasteful and upsetting is protected by the First Amendment,” said Hedy Weinberg, the executive director of ACLU of Tennessee. “The best answer to this speech is not speech restrictions, but more speech.”
Weinberg said the bill, while “well intentioned,” could have unintended side effects that would make it illegal, for example, to protest within 500 feet of the funeral of a person who died while in police custody.
In addition, Weinberg said the bill is not necessary because standing state and local laws already prohibit trespassing on private property.
“These distances are far too restrictive on free speech rights,” Weinberg said.
Louisiana has a similar bill in the works, and they too are recieving resistance from the ACLU.
To us, respect for the dead and for grieving loved ones mandates that protest groups be barred from demonstrating at funerals or during funeral processions. Who would oppose a law designed to achieve that?
That’s a no-brainer, of course. The American Civil Liberties Union would.
The ACLU will argue against Thompson’s bill, claiming it would violate the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech.
The ACLU does many worthwhile things; this is not one of them. We believe the framers of the Constitution would have been horrified by the argument that, in approving the First Amendment, they had guaranteed the right to disrupt funerals, disturb mourners and destroy the dignity of the most solemn of observances.
This argument by the ACLU is as absurd as its claim that, when former Gov. Mike Foster asked people to pray for rain during a severe drought a few years ago, he violated the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion and tried to turn Louisiana into an Iran-like theocracy.
Thompson’s bill is reasonable. It would make it unlawful for anyone to picket or protest within 1,000 feet “of any church, cemetery or funeral establishment” from one hour before the services until one hour after their conclusion.
Maximum penalties would be six months in jail, a fine of $100, or both.
Beyond my anger and disgust with the hate this bizarre cult is spreading, 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. These people are free to believe whatever they wish. 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 these bills are 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.
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31 Responses to “ACLU Protects Funeral Protesters”
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While the ACLU fights and the states debate legislation there is one group of volunteers who nationally have been addressing this issue since August of 2005. The Patriot Guard Riders (http://www.patriotguard.org/) has over 17,000 members and is increasing their numbers daily. PGR was formed as a direct response to the Phelps group activities. They serve as an honor guard of motorcycle riders who buffer the noise of the hecklers by revving their bikes motors in addition to carrying flags to show their support of the military. They are all volunteers (ex-military, family of ex-military, non-military supporting the cause) who only attend the soldiers funerals at the request of the soldiers family. They do not confront the hecklers, they outgun them. Donations can be made on their website to help with the cost of advertising, etc. to support the soldiers and their families.
[...] Now it seems that the Cult Of Westboro who are not in any way affiliated with Christ or Christian , but hide behind that as a label are now being protected by the scum sucking aclu [...]
ACLU Rides to the Rescue of Veterans’ Funeral Dese
Yes, wherever some aspect of the Constitution can be twisted to an evil purpose, the knights of the American Civil Liberties Union can be found.
[...] UPDATE: LC & IB Jay of the ACLU has an update on the Phelching Phuckwit as well. Guess who’s protecting Phuckhead Phelp’s “right” to piss on the funerals of soldiers and cause untold amounts of emotional distress? That’s right, the Usual Suspects are. Go read. Posted by Emperor Darth Misha I @ 10:09 pm | [...]
On the left, hypocrisy abounds….
….especially in the ACLU, defender of the First Amendment and vigorous opponent of any incursion of religion into public life.The photograph on our front page of one of the …
Yet Another Reason to Despise the ACLU
There is a horrid man name Fred Phelps who is the self-proclaimed leader of the Westboro Baptist Church who enjoys protesting at the funerals of our fallen soldiers.
Think The ACLU is good for anything?
Is the ACLU a necessary evil? You think we are better served by having such an organization around even though they are financed in large part by your tax dollars? Well, I believe that the ACLU is a blood-sucking leech clinging to the leg of the aver…
ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Funeral Protest Bill
From Stop the ACLU:
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…
ACLU
Crossposted from: Stop The ACLU 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….
So how come no one tried to make laws when the Phelps group protested funerals of dead homosexuals? These states only cared when they protested veteran funerals.
[...] The Annoying Communist Licking Union is defending the Phelps inbreds. Posted by Ian S. in [...]
For this one, I have to support the ACLU. The laws they are fighting also prevent those supporting the troops, the war and whatever else from being within whatever distance. This also could includes someone that fought with the hero that gave their life and simply wanted to show respect.
[...] Kentucky should have seen the challenge coming. Similar legislation was opposed by the ACLU in Louisiana and Tennessee. [...]
[...] responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your ownsite. [...]
I do like the Patriot Guard’s Solution — forget government, they can’t do anything right. Beat the snot out of the idiots and all will be well.
[...] Many argue that the ACLU is too liberal while a growing group are starting to complain that it is too libertarian. Whichever view you take, the Reverend Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church are the last people one would expect to be supported by that organizations. Stop the ACLU reports that the ACLU is going to be defending the fag haters: In Tennessee the Senate just passed a bill that requires a 500-foot buffer zone between a funeral, burial or funeral procession and its protesters. Those that come closer than 500 feet could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, punishable up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. Other states as nearby as Kentucky and Missouri agree. Those states have already passed new laws limiting protests at funerals. [...]
[...] Protesting in front of abortion clinics is unconstitutional, protesting in front of churches and cemetaries is a God-given right. [...]
People who bash the ACLU have no understanding of it’s purpose. The ACLU isn’t some liberal agenda looking to turn America into a communist nation. They specifically target and challenge potentially controversial or nonconstitutional laws, and run them through the time-honored process called “Judicial Review.” In case you don’t know what that is, please check out this helpful Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_review#Judicial_review_in_the_United_States
Now that you know what you’re dealing with, consider the cases that the ACLU takes, those where there may not be anyone willing or able to afford challenging the decision are prevalent, but they will take up any fight that may prove the legislators were not making laws to follow the United States Constitution.
So before you go calling someone a communist, make sure they’re not defending a precedent of this country that is nearly as old as this country. If a law is meant to be, it will be upheld by the courts, belief may be a factor in the zealotry of some members of the ACLU, but the goal is not to tear down laws for the sake of turning the country in to a communist cesspool or create a band of hate-cultists to ruin funerals across America.
Please, as one of your linked websites to the left says, “Get A CLU!”
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[...] But try telling that to Stop the ACLU. They write: If you haven’t heard about the Westboro Baptist Church Hate Cult, Dread Pundit Pluto puts some can fill you in. In short, they believe that God is punishing America for our arrogance and our tolerance of gays. They feel that the best place to express their hate is picketing the funerals of veterans killed in the War on Terror with signs saying such things as “God Hates Fags”, and “Thank God For Dead Soldiers.” Of course this kind of disrespect is bound to anger quite a few folks. In reaction some states are creating laws to limit these protests with buffer zones. While most reasonable folks can see the common sense in this, the American Civil Liberties Union are calling it Unconstitutional. [...]
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