No pictures intentionally. This evil group gets no free advertising.
Westboro Baptist Church protesters will soon be severely limited in their ability to disrupt military funerals, after Congress passed a sweeping veterans bill this week that includes restrictions on such demonstrations.
According to “The Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012,” which is now headed to President Barack Obama’s desk, demonstrators will no longer be allowed to picket military funerals two hours before or after a service. The bill also requires protestors to be at least 300 feet away from grieving family members.
This aspect of the legislation was introduced by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who, at the urging of a teenage constituent, proposed new limitations on military funeral demonstrations as a response to a 2011 Supreme Court case that ruled such actions were protected under the First Amendment.
Let’s hope the work of this Congress puts some teeth in the law and that Westboro will not longer be able to manipulate and bastardize the First Amendment to dispense their hate, often at a military family’s most vulnerable time. Westboro will continue to act inappropriately, for sure, but at least our military families will be insulated by a layer of protection. There are just some lines people shouldn’t cross and this is one of them, in my opinion.
Its good to see that Congress can finally get something done.
