WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has left in place a court order barring Missouri from enforcing a law limiting protests near funerals.
The justices refused without comment Monday to hear Missouri's appeal. The state enacted a law aimed at religious picketers who have turned up at soldiers' funerals. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., claim God allows soldiers to be killed as punishment for the nation's sins, including homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, idolatry and greed.
Church member Shirley Phelps-Roper persuaded the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis to issue an order barring enforcement of the law while a federal judge considers whether it is constitutional.
The case is Nixon v. Phelps-Roper, 08-1244.