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http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_mo_funeralban_010909w/
news/2009/01/ap_mo_funeralban_010909w
news/2009/01/ap_mo_funeralban_010909w
Church sues over funeral protest ban
Posted : Sunday Jan 11, 2009 15:36:11 EST
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Westboro Baptist Church member has sued the city of St. Joseph over its ordinance banning protests at soldiers’ funerals.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, asks a judge to declare the ordinance and its enforcement unconstitutional.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed the suit on behalf of Shirley Phelps-Roper. She’s the daughter of Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps.
The St. Joseph city attorney’s office did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.
The church believes that U.S. troop deaths are punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
Phelps-Roper is pursuing a similar suit against the state of Missouri. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October that church members could picket soldiers’ funerals in Missouri.
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