Tagged: Westboro Baptist Church

Another Missouri town has adopted an ordinance placing limits on funeral protests. 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that aldermen in Ballwin on Monday approved a law prohibiting picketing or engaging in other protest activities within 300 feet of a funeral or burial service. Manchester, Clayton and several other cities have adopted similar ordinances in recent months.

The laws are in response to groups like Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., which often protests at the funerals of soldiers.

A federal appeals court has ruled that efforts by the city of Manchester to limit protests by the Westboro Baptist Church is constitutional, despite the fact that it limits free speech.

The ordinance, which has been amended several times, was first adopted in 2007.  The final version limits picketing or other protest activities within 300 feet of the site of any funeral or burial service within an hour before or an hour after the ceremony. There are no restrictions on picketing during processions. 

Blagojevich plans to keep fighting

Rod Blagojevich has just over two months of freedom before he's scheduled to begin a 14-year prison term. But the ex-governor and his lawyers plan to keep fighting.  

After Judge James Zagel handed down the sentence, and the public was ushered out of the courtroom, more than an hour passed before the ex-governor, his wife and his lawyers appeared in the lobby of the court building.